Coherence, Teleportation, and Open Systems: Comments on Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

2001 ◽  
Vol 08 (01) ◽  
pp. 55-62
Author(s):  
Roman S. Ingarden
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Open Systems ◽  
Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Philosophical Discussion ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Quantum Phenomena

A physical and philosophical discussion of quantum phenomena of coherence, teleportation and open systems is given. We attempt to show that modern physics can give some impulses for new solutions or new tendencies in philosophy. One of the questions is the problem of what is basic in quantum physics: “substances” or “situations”, the problem of an observer or two observers at least, of a whole and a part, or distributive or collective sets, of particle-wave complementarity, and of modalities such as possibility, necessity, probability, potentiality, etc.

scholarly journals Decoherence and Intertheory Relations in Quantum Realism

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
Nahuel Sznajderhaus
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Classical Limit ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Classical Mechanics ◽  
Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Main Claim ◽  
Complex Relation ◽  
Quantum Realism ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Realist Interpretation

The complex relation between quantum mechanics and classical mechanics is crucial in the philosophy of modern physics, and it cuts across current quantum physics. This paper is divided in two parts. In the first part I will offer a critical analysis of the role that decoherence plays in the account of the quantum-classical limit. In the second part I will mention three ways in which philosophers are engaging with the realist interpretation of quantum mechanics in light of the assessment that the problem of the quantum-classical limit is still open to debate. My main claim is that the problem of the quantum-classical limit is overrated and it receives too much attention for the realist who looks at quantum mechanics. The question that the realist wants to focus on is the crucial interpretation question: what is a quantum system?

scholarly journals Consistent description of microscopic phenomena by macroscopic observers in quantum theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexey Kryukov
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Random Noise ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Newtonian Physics ◽  
Measurement Results ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Measured System ◽  
Physical Phenomena

Abstract Quantum mechanics is the foundation of modern physics that is thought to be applicable to all physical phenomena, at least in principle. However, when applied to macroscopic bodies, the theory seems to be inconsistent. Wigner's friend and related thought experiments demonstrate that accounts by different observers described by the rules of quantum mechanics may be contradictory. Although still highly debated, such experiments seem to demonstrate an incompatibility of quantum mechanics with the usual rules of logic. Alternatively, one of the hidden assumptions in the thought experiments must be wrong. For instance, the argument is invalidated if macroscopic observers cannot be considered as physical systems described by the rules of quantum theory. Here we prove that there is a way to apply the rules of quantum mechanics to macroscopic observers while avoiding contradictory accounts of measurement by the observers. The key to this is the random noise that is ever present in nature and that represents the uncontrollable part of interaction between measured system and the surroundings in classical and quantum physics. By exploring the effect of the noise on microscopic and macroscopic bodies, we demonstrate that accounts of Wigner, the friend and other agents all become consistent. Our result suggests that the existing attempts to modify the Schrodinger equation to account for measurement results may be misguided. More broadly, the proposed mechanism for modeling measurements underlies the phenomenon of decoherence and is shown to be sufficient to explain the transition to Newtonian physics in quantum theory.

Surrealism and Quantum Mechanics: Dispersal and Fragmentation in Art, Life, and Physics

2004 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
World War ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Abstract Language ◽  
Discursive Field

ArgumentBy the time the members of the Surrealist group had fled Paris and dispersed at the beginning of World War II, they had taken account of quantum mechanics and were seeking various ways of assimilating its findings into Surrealist theory. This can be detected in writings issuing from the Surrealist milieu as early as the late 1920s. However, while writers and thinkers outside the field of physics swiftly expressed their awareness of the epistemological crisis brought about by quantum mechanics, Surrealism's artists began to conscript the concepts and imagery of modern physics into their work only at the end of the 1930s. Focusing on two “second generation” Surrealist painters, the Chilean Roberto Matta and the Viennese Wolfgang Paalen, this article discusses the peculiar difficulties faced by artists in finding a language for the “new reality” revealed by the physicists, and argues that the relocation of Surrealism in a discursive field which includes quantum physics discloses the rationale behind its artists' shift to a semi-abstract language.

Philosophy of Physics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk Barberousse
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Computer Simulations ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Special Science ◽  
Philosophy Of Physics ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
Scientific Terms ◽  
Quantum Phenomena ◽  
Main Thread

Philosophical reflections on physics and its theories have been shaping the agenda of general philosophy of science, including issues such as the nature of scientific theories, the meaning of scientific terms, and scientific modeling. But physics is also well worth being considered a special science of its own, whose methods and tools raised specific questions for philosophers of science: this is the approach followed in this chapter, which has as its main thread the role of mathematics in physical theories. It tackles classical issues concerning measurement and determinism and long-standing controversies in the philosophy of statistical mechanics (how may the reversible laws of mechanics account for the irreversible principles of thermodynamics?) and in the philosophy of quantum physics (does quantum mechanics provide us a with a complete description of quantum phenomena?). It also addresses emerging issues in the field, such as computer simulations and their role between theory and observation.

Scientific Realism and the Quantum

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Field Theory ◽  
Quantum Field Theory ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Quantum Field ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Physics

Scientific realism has traditionally maintained that our best scientific theories can be regarded as more or less true and as representing the world as it is (more or less). However, one of our very best current theories—quantum mechanics—has famously resisted such a realist construal, threatening to undermine the realist stance altogether. The chapters in this volume carefully examine this tension and the reasons behind it, including the underdetermination generated by the multiplicity of formulations and interpretations of quantum physics, each presenting a different way the world could be. Authors in this volume offer a range of alternative ways forward: some suggest new articulations of realism, limiting our commitments in one way or another; others attempt to articulate a ‘third way’ between traditional forms of realism and antirealism, or are critical of such attempts. Still others argue that quantum theory itself should be reconceptualised, or at least alternative formulations should be considered in the hope of evading the problems faced by realism. And some examine the nature of these issues when moving beyond quantum mechanics to quantum field theory. Taken together they offer an exciting new set of perspectives on one of the most fundamental questions in the philosophy of modern physics: how can one be a realist about quantum theory, and what does this realism amount to?

CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF QUANTUM MECHANICS: THE ROLE OF EVIDENCE THEORY, QUANTUM SETS, AND MODAL LOGIC

1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 29-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
GERMANO RESCONI ◽  
GEORGE J. KLIR ◽  
ELIANO PESSA
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Modal Logic ◽  
Set Theory ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Evidence Theory ◽  
Foundations Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Many Worlds ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Quantum Phenomena

Recognizing that syntactic and semantic structures of classical logic are not sufficient to understand the meaning of quantum phenomena, we propose in this paper a new interpretation of quantum mechanics based on evidence theory. The connection between these two theories is obtained through a new language, quantum set theory, built on a suggestion by J. Bell. Further, we give a modal logic interpretation of quantum mechanics and quantum set theory by using Kripke's semantics of modal logic based on the concept of possible worlds. This is grounded on previous work of a number of researchers (Resconi, Klir, Harmanec) who showed how to represent evidence theory and other uncertainty theories in terms of modal logic. Moreover, we also propose a reformulation of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics in terms of Kripke's semantics. We thus show how three different theories — quantum mechanics, evidence theory, and modal logic — are interrelated. This opens, on one hand, the way to new applications of quantum mechanics within domains different from the traditional ones, and, on the other hand, the possibility of building new generalizations of quantum mechanics itself.

scholarly journals QUANTUM MECHANICS AS QUANTUM MEASURE THEORY

1994 ◽  
Vol 09 (33) ◽  
pp. 3119-3127 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAFAEL D. SORKIN
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Sum Rules ◽  
Measure Theory ◽  
Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Natural Manner ◽  
Sum Rule ◽  
Realistic Interpretation ◽  
Quantum Measure ◽  
Special Case

The additivity of classical probabilities is only the first in a hierarchy of possible sum rules, each of which implies its successor. The first and most restrictive sum rule of the hierarchy yields measure theory in the Kolmogorov sense, which is appropriate physically for the description of stochastic processes such as Brownian motion. The next weaker sum rule defines a generalized measure theory which includes quantum mechanics as a special case. The fact that quantum probabilities can be expressed "as the squares of quantum amplitudes" is thus derived in a natural manner, and a series of natural generalizations of the quantum formalism is delineated. Conversely, the mathematical sense in which classical physics is a special case of quantum physics is clarified. The present paper presents these relationships in the context of a "realistic" interpretation of quantum mechanics.

scholarly journals Lie Algebra as a Unifying Concept in Modern Physics

1977 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-441
Author(s):  
Edwin Ihrig
Keyword(s):  
General Relativity ◽  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Lie Groups ◽  
Lie Algebras ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Holonomy Group ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Classical And Quantum Mechanics

AbstractLie algebras, in the form of algebras of observables, play an essential role in the formulation of classical and quantum mechanics. We discuss whether lie groups play a similar role in general relativity through the holonomy group. We also explore what interrelations these ideas provide between classical physics, relativity and quantum physics.

scholarly journals Conceiving Particles as Undulating Granular Systems Allows Fundamentally Realist Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 1338
Author(s):  
Stéphane Avner
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Measurement Problem ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Granular Systems ◽  
Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Linear Dynamical Systems ◽  
Wave Particle Duality ◽  
Realist Interpretation ◽  
Quantum Phenomena ◽  
High Level

The strange behavior of subatomic particles is described by quantum theory, whose standard interpretation rejected some fundamental principles of classical physics such as causality, objectivity, locality, realism and determinism. Recently, a granular relativistic electrodynamical model of the electron could capture the measured values of its observables and predict its mass from the stability of its substructure. The model involves numerous subparticles that constitute some tight nucleus and loosely bound envelope allegedly forming real waves. The present study examines whether such a substructure and associated dynamics allow fundamentally realist interpretations of emblematic quantum phenomena, properties and principles, such as wave-particle duality, loss of objectivity, quantization, simultaneous multipath exploration, collapse of wavepacket, measurement problem, and entanglement. Drawing inspiration from non-linear dynamical systems, subparticles would involve realist hidden variables while high-level observables would not generally be determined, as particles would generally be in unstable states before measurements. Quantum mechanics would constitute a high-level probabilistic description emerging from an underlying causal, objective, local, albeit contextual and unpredictable reality. Altogether, by conceiving particles as granular systems composed of numerous extremely sensitive fluctuating subcorpuscles, this study proposes the possible existence of a local fundamentally realist interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Not So Real

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheldon Lee Glashow
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics

On the interpretation of quantum mechanics: Sheldon Lee Glashow reviews What Is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics by Adam Becker.

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