AM Physics Test 1 Leave a Comment / By fawadtwopointo@gmail.com / August 22, 2025 Welcome to your AM Physics Test 1 In nonrelativistic quantum theory, a complete set of commuting observables is primarily used to: Remove degeneracy from all spectra Define a unique potential Eliminate measurement back-action Label mutually exclusive measurement outcomes None Which interpretation treats the wavefunction as a tool for computing probabilities without asserting underlying reality? Many-worlds de Broglie–Bohm Objective collapse Copenhagen None In scattering theory, the physical meaning of the S-matrix unitarity condition is that: Total probability is conserved in all scattering processes Energy is exactly conserved for bound states only Cross sections are independent of energy Interaction range is finite None In relativistic quantum field theory, microcausality requires that: Vacuum fluctuations are absent Measurements at spacelike separation cannot influence each other Interactions vanish beyond a fixed length scale All fields are gauge fields None Renormalization group “flow” primarily describes how: Boundary conditions change under time evolution Observables transform under spatial rotations Effective couplings change with the scale of observation Gauge choices alter particle content None Spontaneous symmetry breaking in a continuous global symmetry implies the existence of: Massive vector bosons by default Exact degeneracy lifting by measurement Massless Nambu–Goldstone modes Topological solitons None The spin–statistics connection in relativistic QFT links: Integer spin to bosonic commutation relations Integer spin to antisymmetric states Half-integer spin to symmetric states Half-integer spin to bosonic behavior None In neutrino oscillations, observing flavor change as particles travel implies that: At least two mass eigenstates are nonzero and nondegenerate Flavor and mass bases coincide Neutrinos are strictly massless All flavors have identical masses None The physical content of a gauge theory is invariant under gauge transformations because: Gauge choice fixes particle masses Gauge fixing changes the S-matrix Gauge transformations are physical forces Gauge freedom reflects descriptive redundancy None The path-integral weight’s rapidly varying phase mainly enforces that: All paths contribute equally Quantum tunneling is impossible Only paths with stationary action contribute coherently Only classical paths exist None The equivalence principle operationally states that: Local experiments cannot distinguish uniform acceleration from a uniform gravitational field Gravity can always be shielded Inertial frames do not exist Light is unaffected by gravity None In curved spacetime, freely falling motion follows: Paths that minimize coordinate time Paths fixed by extremal proper intervals Paths of constant spatial curvature Any path if speed is small None Black hole area theorems in classical gravity imply that, classically: Horizon area oscillates in time Horizon area never decreases Area can shrink under classical processes Horizon area equals mass exactly None Gravitational waves carry: Only mass Energy and momentum away from accelerating masses Only angular momentum No energy and no momentum None In cosmology, the horizon problem arises because: Expansion stops at late times There is no dark matter The Universe is exactly static Widely separated regions exhibit nearly identical conditions without sufficient causal contact None The canonical ensemble is appropriate when a system: Is driven far from equilibrium with no reservoir Exchanges particles but not energy Is isolated with fixed energy Exchanges energy with a heat bath at fixed temperature None The microcanonical entropy increases most steeply where the density of states: Decreases with energy Is constant with energy Grows rapidly with energy Is independent of volume None In phase transitions, universality means that: Dynamics are irrelevant to scaling Lattice spacing fully determines exponents Critical exponents depend only on broad features like dimension and symmetry, not microscopic details All materials have identical critical temperatures None Time's up
