English

Reconsidering No-Go Theorems from a Practical Perspective

Quantum Physics 2018-11-20 v2 History and Philosophy of Physics

Abstract

I argue that our judgements regarding the locally causal models which are compatible with a given quantum no-go theorem implicitly depend, in part, on the context of inquiry. It follows from this that certain no-go theorems, which are particularly striking in the traditional foundational context, have no force when the context switches to a discussion of the physical systems we are capable of building with the aim of classically reproducing quantum statistics. I close with a general discussion of the possible implications of this for our understanding of the limits of classical description, and for our understanding of the fundamental aim of physical investigation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1509.07564,
  title  = {Reconsidering No-Go Theorems from a Practical Perspective},
  author = {Michael E. Cuffaro},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.07564},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

Forthcoming in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 19 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-22T11:05:04.215Z