English

Labels for non-individuals

Quantum Physics 2015-06-26 v1

Abstract

Quasi-set theory is a first order theory without identity, which allows us to cope with non-individuals in a sense. A weaker equivalence relation called ``indistinguishability'' is an extension of identity in the sense that if xx is identical to yy then xx and yy are indistinguishable, although the reciprocal is not always valid. The interesting point is that quasi-set theory provides us a useful mathematical background for dealing with collections of indistinguishable elementary quantum particles. In the present paper, however, we show that even in quasi-set theory it is possible to label objects that are considered as non-individuals. We intend to prove that individuality has nothing to do with any labelling process at all, as suggested by some authors. We discuss the physical interpretation of our results.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0408168,
  title  = {Labels for non-individuals},
  author = {Adonai S. Sant'Anna},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0408168},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

11 pages, no figures