English

An Introduction to Topos Physics

Mathematical Physics 2008-03-18 v1 math.MP

Abstract

The basic notion of how topoi can be utilized in physics is presented here. Topos and category theory serve as valuable tools which extend our ordinary set-theoretical conceptions, can further the study of quantum logic and give rise to new and 'neo-realistic' descriptions of quantum physics, i.e. make possible the construction of a general scheme for quantum physics, which 'looks like' the classical one. A novel way of writing theories of physics, by representing a formal language of a physical system, into an appropriate topos, is analyzed here. This novel approach is initiated by C.J. Isham and A. Doering and the major part of this paper comes from there; however there has been an effort in simplifying the basic ideas and do this work accessible to 'less experts' of the field. A minor, but not less important, part of this paper is devoted to resuming, in a concise way the background knowledge of logic, quantum logic and category theory, that is necessary for anyone who wishes to follow the whole topos approach.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0803.2361,
  title  = {An Introduction to Topos Physics},
  author = {Marios Tsatsos},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0803.2361},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

104 pages, diploma thesis

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:21:57.386Z