This thesis attempts to explain Everettian quantum mechanics from the ground up, such that those with little to no experience in quantum physics can understand it. First, we introduce the history of quantum theory, and some concepts that make up the framework of quantum physics. Through these concepts, we reveal why interpretations are necessary to map the quantum world onto our classical world. We then introduce the Copenhagen interpretation, and how many-worlds differs from it. From there, we dive into the concepts of entanglement and decoherence, explaining how worlds branch in an Everettian universe, and how an Everettian universe can appear as our classical observed world. From there, we attempt to answer common questions about many-worlds and discuss whether there are philosophical ramifications to believing such a theory. Finally, we look at whether the many-worlds interpretation can be proven, and why one might choose to believe it.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of entanglement and the particular problems it poses for some physicists. In addition to looking at the history of entanglement and non-locality, this paper will use the Bell Test as a means for demonstrating how entanglement works, which measures the behavior of electrons whose combined internal angular momentum is zero. This paper will go over Dr. Bell's famous inequality, which shows why the process of entanglement cannot be explained by traditional means of local processes. Entanglement will be viewed initially through the Copenhagen Interpretation, but this paper will also look at two particular models of quantum mechanics, de-Broglie Bohm theory and Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation, and observe how they explain the behavior of spin and entangled particles compared to the Copenhagen Interpretation.

This paper analyzes the history and impact of the double-slit experiment on the world of physics. The experiment was initially created by Thomas Young in the early nineteenth century to prove that light behaved as a wave, and the experiment’s findings ended up being foundational to the classical wave theory of light. Decades later, the experiment was replicated once more with electrons instead of light and shockingly demonstrated that electrons possessed a dual nature of behavior in that they acted in some instances as particles and in others as waves. Despite numerous modifications and replications, the dual behavior of electrons has never been definitively explained. Numerous interpretations of quantum mechanics all offer their own explanations of the double-slit experiment’s results. Notably, the Copenhagen Interpretation states that an observer measuring a quantum system, such as the double-slit experiment, causes the electrons to behave classically (i.e. as a particle.) The Many Worlds Interpretation offers that multiple branching worlds come into existence to represent the physical occurrence of all probable outcomes of the double-slit experiment. In these and other interpretations, explanations of the double-slit experiment are key to proving their respective dogmas. The double-slit experiment has historically been very important to the worlds of both classical and quantum physics and is still being modified and replicated to this day. It is clear that it will continue to remain relevant even in the future of physics.

With the extreme strides taken in physics in the early twentieth century, one of the biggest questions on the minds of scientists was what this new branch of quantum physics would be able to be used for. The twentieth century saw the rise of computers as devices that significantly aided in calculations and performing algorithms. Because of the incredible success of computers and all of the groundbreaking possibilities that they afforded, research into using quantum mechanics for these systems was proposed. Although theoretical at the time, it was found that a computer that had the ability to leverage quantum mechanics would be far superior to any classical machine. This sparked a wave of interest in research and funding in this exciting new field. General-use quantum computers have the potential to disrupt countless industries and fields of study, like physics, medicine, engineering, cryptography, finance, meteorology, climatology, and more. The supremacy of quantum computers has not yet been reached, but the continued funding and research into this new technology ensures that one day humanity will be able to unlock the full potential of quantum computing.

This is a primer on the mathematic foundation of quantum mechanics. It seeks to introduce the topic in such a way that it is useful to both mathematicians and physicists by providing an extended example of abstract math concepts to work through and by going more in-depth in the math formalism than would normally be covered in a quantum mechanics class. The thesis begins by investigating functional analysis topics such as the Hilbert space and operators acting on them. Then it goes on to the postulates of quantum mechanics which extends the math formalism covered before to physics and works as the foundation for the rest of quantum mechanics.