In addition, we will include lots of other readings from the technical and semi-technical literature; a preliminary listing can be found here.
Quantum mechanics is the basis for almost all of modern physics, and is accepted essentially without question by working physicists. Certain aspects of quantum mechanics, lying both in the axioms at its foundations, and in the behavior that it predicts (and that is observed in experiment) are quite counter-intuitive. Thus the practicing physicist learns to abandon some of his or her intuitive assumptions about the way nature ``must'' behave.
The need to abandon these intuitive assumptions, however, has profound philosophical implications, and also makes the subject fascinating for the layperson. Questions arise as to whether or not determinism can be salvaged, what is the role of the observer (and human consciousness) in a measurement, and even if strict causality (i.e. cause always preceding effect) is obeyed in nature. The ``received wisdom'' for a philosophical framework in which to place the mathematics of quantum physics is the so-called Copenhagen Interpretation, largely due to Niels Bohr and collaborators. It is not clear that this is a philosophically acceptable interpretation, and it is certainly far from clear that it is the only interpretation that is both logically consistent and not in contradiction with the ultimate arbiter, experiment.
A wealth of work has been done over the years by philosophers and physicists on the interpretation problem, and several alternative interpretations have been proposed. Many have been eliminated through experiment (for example via tests of the famous Bell Inequalities), but many more remain viable. As well, there has been a plethora of popular science books that discuss the counter-intuitive nature of ``modern'' physics, and in some cases attempt to relate this to such things as Eastern mysticism, telepathy, etc.
The course will use two experiments, the double-slit electron experiment, and the EPR correlation experiment(s), as the focus of our introduction to quantum physics. A careful study of both of these systems will lead us to all the challenging questions of the interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the nature of reality.
Supplemental reading will be done using various articles in the technical and semi-technical literature, i.e. from sources such as Physics Today, The American Journal of Physics, and The Physics Teacher. We will read and critically analyze a number of popular science treatments of the subject, and delve into several of the alternatives to the Copenhagen interpretation.