scholarly journals I. Why Quantum Mechanics Makes Sense

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (06) ◽  
pp. 0619
Author(s):  
Conrad Dale Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Unitary Evolution ◽  
Fundamental Physics ◽  
Classical Physics

We take it for granted that our physical environment communicates information, making things observable and measurable. However, there are very strong constraints on the fundamental physics of any universe that can do this. Measuring or communicating any kind of information always requires an appropriate interactive context, and these contexts are necessarily complex, involving other kinds of information determined in different contexts. This makes measurement hard to grasp theoretically, since every measurement depends on other kinds of measurements. Even so, we can identify some basic functional requirements for a physics that determines and communicates facts. These are sufficient to explain the peculiar features of quantum mechanics, combining the unitary evolution of superpositions with the mysterious "collapse" that occurs whenever the context allows new facts to be defined. Moreover, the precise determinism of classical physics can be understood on the same basis. It seems likely, in fact, that most of the complexity and fine-tuning we see in our most fundamental theories is needed to make any kind of information measurable.

scholarly journals Beyond Superconductivity

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 249-251
Author(s):  
Jochen Mannhart
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Wave Packets ◽  
Quantum States ◽  
Quantum Mechanical ◽  
Transition Regime ◽  
Unitary Evolution ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Schrödinger’S Equation ◽  
Novel Device ◽  
Schrödinger's Equation

Abstract We present a novel device concept that utilizes the fascinating transition regime between quantum mechanics and classical physics. The devices operate by using a small number of individual quantum mechanical collapse events to interrupt the unitary evolution of quantum states represented by wave packets. Exceeding the constraints of the unitary evolution of quantum mechanics given by Schrödinger’s equation and of classical Hamiltonian physics, these devices display a surprising behavior.

Misapprehensions about the Fine-Tuning Argument

2017 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 133-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hawthorne ◽  
Yoaav Isaacs
Keyword(s):  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Fundamental Physics

AbstractThe fine-tuning argument purports to show that particular aspects of fundamental physics provide evidence for the existence of God. This argument is legitimate, yet there are numerous doubts about its legitimacy. There are various misgivings about the fine-tuning argument which are based on misunderstandings. In this paper we will go over several major misapprehensions (from both popular and philosophical sources), and explain why they do not undermine the basic cogency of the fine-tuning argument.

scholarly journals Free Will in Human Behavior and Physics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasil Dinev Penchev
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Information ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Quantum Bit ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The One

If the concept of “free will” is reduced to that of “choice” all physical world share the latter quality. Anyway the “free will” can be distinguished from the “choice”: The “free will” involves implicitly a certain goal, and the choice is only the mean, by which the aim can be achieved or not by the one who determines the target. Thus, for example, an electron has always a choice but not free will unlike a human possessing both. Consequently, and paradoxically, the determinism of classical physics is more subjective and more anthropomorphic than the indeterminism of quantum mechanics for the former presupposes certain deterministic goal implicitly following the model of human freewill behavior. Quantum mechanics introduces the choice in the fundament of physical world involving a generalized case of choice, which can be called “subjectless”: There is certain choice, which originates from the transition of the future into the past. Thus that kind of choice is shared of all existing and does not need any subject: It can be considered as a low of nature. There are a few theorems in quantum mechanics directly relevant to the topic: two of them are called “free will theorems” by their authors (Conway and Kochen 2006; 2009). Any quantum system either a human or an electron or whatever else has always a choice: Its behavior is not predetermined by its past. This is a physical law. It implies that a form of information, the quantum information underlies all existing for the unit of the quantity of information is an elementary choice: either a bit or a quantum bit (qubit).

scholarly journals The Search for Feebly Interacting Particles

2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 279-313
Author(s):  
Gaia Lanfranchi ◽  
Maxim Pospelov ◽  
Philip Schuster
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Particle Physics ◽  
Interaction Strength ◽  
New Physics ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Experimental Program ◽  
Interacting Particles ◽  
Fundamental Physics ◽  
The Standard Model ◽  
The Universe

At the dawn of a new decade, particle physics faces the challenge of explaining the mystery of dark matter, the origin of matter over antimatter in the Universe, the apparent fine-tuning of the electroweak scale, and many other aspects of fundamental physics. Perhaps the most striking frontier to emerge in the search for answers involves New Physics at mass scales comparable to that of familiar matter—below the GeV scale but with very feeble interaction strength. New theoretical ideas to address dark matter and other fundamental questions predict such feebly interacting particles (FIPs) at these scales, and existing data may even provide hints of this possibility. Emboldened by the lessons of the LHC, a vibrant experimental program to discover such physics is underway, guided by a systematic theoretical approach that is firmly grounded in the underlying principles of the Standard Model. We give an overview of these efforts, their motivations, and the decadal goals that animate the community involved in the search for FIPs, and we focus in particular on accelerator-based experiments.

Philosophy of Physics: A Very Short Introduction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Philosophy Of Physics ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Fundamental Physics ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
Modern Physics ◽  
Parallel Universes ◽  
Large Systems

Philosophy of Physics: A Very Short Introduction explores the core topics of philosophy of physics through three key themes: the nature of space and time; the origin of irreversibility and probability in the physics of large systems; how we can make sense of quantum mechanics. Central issues discussed include: the scientific method as it applies in modern physics; the distinction between absolute and relative motion; the way that distinction changes between Newton’s physics and special relativity; what spacetime is and how it relates to the laws of physics; how fundamental physics can make no distinction between past and future and yet a clear distinction exists in the world we see around us; why it is so difficult to understand quantum mechanics, and why doing so might push us to change our fundamental physics, to rethink the nature of science, or even to accept the existence of parallel universes.

Case Study - “Can You See Me?”

2012 ◽  
pp. 804-815
Author(s):  
Anne DiPardo ◽  
Mike DiPardo
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Working Relationships ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Virtual Collaboration ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
History Of ◽  
Written Word

This chapter presents a case study detailing how geographically dispersed software developers employ writing in the process of creating and troubleshooting products for use in the healthcare industry. It focuses particularly on their efforts to arrive at language that unambiguously reflects functional requirements and optimal design principles. After a brief history of the company and the evolution of its national and international virtual collaboration practices, the authors turn to the role of text across particular task cycles, exploring the uses of writing in generating, designing, and refining plans and products. Focusing on a series of three composing sequences, the authors highlight the incremental process by which the team moves toward a shared sense of understanding and linguistic precision. They argue that in contrast to common conceptions of texts as simple containers for preformed ideas, these episodes provide a more nuanced picture, as writing comes to play a central role in constituting and fine-tuning meaning and in maintaining strong working relationships throughout the processes of developing and refining products. They close with implications for preparing diverse virtual teams for participation in tasks that demand exacting uses of the written word.

scholarly journals Fine-tuning locational formulations in mobile phone calls

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 553-570
Author(s):  
Ali Kazemi
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Conversational Analysis ◽  
Phone Calls ◽  
Data Informed ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Selection Of

This study examines the sequential and situated organization associated with framing locational formulations by dislocated parties to mobile phone calls for the joint accomplishment of location-related social action. The data come from 22 mundane Farsi mobile phone calls involving location inquiring and/or reporting. The analysis of the data, informed by conversational analysis and Levinson’s conceptual framework of perspective-taking, adds frame of reference (hereafter, FoR) to Schegloff’s location, membership, and topic or activity analyses operative in the selection of locational formulations. The trajectory plotted for location-related action indicates the contingent roles which material, linguistic and semiotic resources play in the selection of locational formulations deployed for co-presence purposes. The findings suggest consequentiality of the-relevant-next action for the framing of locational descriptions and provide insight into how conversationalists interact with their physical environment in a wider social context.

scholarly journals Quantum Contextuality and Indeterminacy

Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 867
Author(s):  
Gregg Jaeger
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Equivalence Classes ◽  
Measuring Apparatus ◽  
Classical Physics ◽  
Quantum Contextuality ◽  
Natural Feature ◽  
Classical Models ◽  
Quantum Behavior ◽  
Quantum Observables

The circumstances of measurement have more direct significance in quantum than in classical physics, where they can be neglected for well-performed measurements. In quantum mechanics, the dispositions of the measuring apparatus-plus-environment of the system measured for a property are a non-trivial part of its formalization as the quantum observable. A straightforward formalization of context, via equivalence classes of measurements corresponding to sets of sharp target observables, was recently given for sharp quantum observables. Here, we show that quantum contextuality, the dependence of measurement outcomes on circumstances external to the measured quantum system, can be manifested not only as the strict exclusivity of different measurements of sharp observables or valuations but via quantitative differences in the property statistics across simultaneous measurements of generalized quantum observables, by formalizing quantum context via coexistent generalized observables rather than only its subset of compatible sharp observables. Here, the question of whether such quantum contextuality follows from basic quantum principles is then addressed, and it is shown that the Principle of Indeterminacy is sufficient for at least one form of non-trivial contextuality. Contextuality is thus seen to be a natural feature of quantum mechanics rather than something arising only from the consideration of impossible measurements, abstract philosophical issues, hidden-variables theories, or other alternative, classical models of quantum behavior.

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