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S12b. Which textbook of quantum mechanics is best for foundations?
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For large ensembles, there seems to be no disagreement about the
interpretation. The book 
   A. Peres,
   Quantum theory - concepts and methods,
   Kluwer, Dordrecht 1993
is probably the most useful (i.e., both clear and applicable)
account of foundational aspects on this level. It is not the easiest 
book, though, and reading it demands more attention than, say
Sakurai's book. The latter is much more readable but has sloppy 
foundations only; see the discussion in 
   http://groups-beta.google.com/group/sci.physics.research/msg/77630f64b987274f?dmode=source 
There are also nice online treatises on certain aspects. 
For the basics as related to quantum information theory, see, e.g.,
   M. Plenio, Quantum Mechanics 
   http://www.lsr.ph.ic.ac.uk/~plenio/lecture.pdf
   M.B. Plenio and V. Vedral
   Entanglement in Quantum Information Theory
   quant-ph/9804075
   M.B. Plenio and P.L. Knight
   The Quantum Jump Approach to Dissipative Dynamics in Quantum Optics
   quant-ph/9702007


Modern experiments appear to need, however, a quantum mechanics
of individual systems, and that's where controversy and confusion
prevails. I find none of the existing interpretations convincing,
and wrote up in Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 17 (2003), 2937-2980
= quant-ph/0303047 my own constructive (but incomplete) view 
of the matter. 

This paper is completely self-contained and works directly 
with the statistical mechanics version of QM, with the
benefit that it avoids many of the traditional obscurities.
It discusses complementarity, ensembles, uncertainty relations,
probability, quantum logic, nonlocality, Bell inequalities,
sharpness of measurements, and rudiments of quantum dynamics.

A more up-to date version of my own views on the foundations of quantum 
mechnaics is the thermal interpretation, discussed in 
    A. Neumaier,
    Optical models for quantum mechanics,
    Slides of a lecture given on February 16, 2010 at the
    Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Giessen,
    http://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~neum/ms/optslides.pdf
and in Chapter 7 of my online book
    Arnold Neumaier and Dennis Westra,
    Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras, 
    2008. (arXiv:0810.1019)
The German ''Theoretische Physik FAQ'' at 
     http://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~neum/physik-faq.txt
contains a German language exposition of the thermal interpretation of 
quantum mechanics, which is a much extended version 
of the above and gives a consistent setting for a quantum universe 
which explains the nature of quantum chance. 


For the history of the interpretation of QM, see the excellent book
   Max Jammer 
   The philosophy of quantum mechanics.
   The interpretations of quantum mechanics in historical perspective 
   Wiley, New York 1974
and the collection of original papers,
    J.A. Wheeler and W. H. Zurek (eds.),
    Quantum theory and measurement.
    Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton 1983,