Related papers: A discussion on particle number and quantum indist…
There are four reasons why our present knowledge and understanding of quantum mechanics could be regarded as incomplete. Firstly, the principle of linear superposition has not been experimentally tested for position eigenstates of objects…
The one particle quantum mechanics is considered in the frame of a N-body classical kinetics in the phase space. Within this framework, the scenario of a subquantum structure for the quantum particle, emerges naturally, providing an…
In a previous preprint (quant-ph/0012122) we introduced a ``contextual objectivity" formulation of quantum mechanics (QM). A central feature of this approach is to define the quantum state in physical rather than in mathematical terms, in…
This chapter acknowledges a gap between the ``non-individuals'' interpretation of quantum mechanics and our world of experience, and begins to bridge it. Section 1 states the problem with Abner Shimony's ``Phenomenological principle'';…
Quantum theory was radically different from the theories of nature which came before it. One key difference was its use of complex numbers. This opened a longstanding debate over whether quantum theory fundamentally requires complex numbers…
The classical mechanics of a finite number of degrees of freedom requires a symplectic structure on phase space C, but it is independent of any complex structure. On the contrary, the quantum theory is intimately linked with the choice of a…
Quantum coherence quantifies the amount of superposition in a quantum system, and is the reason and resource behind several phenomena and technologies. It depends on the natural basis in which the quantum state of the system is expressed,…
The interpretation of quantum mechanics has been discussed since this theme first was brought up by Einstein and Bohr. This article describes a proposal for a new foundation of quantum theory, partly drawing upon ideas from statistical…
Students of quantum mechanics encounter discrete quantum numbers in a somewhat incoherent and bewildering number of ways. For each physical system studied, quantum numbers seem to be introduced in its own specific way, some enumerating from…
A remarkable feature of quantum theory is that particles with identical intrinsic properties must be treated as indistinguishable if the theory is to give valid predictions. In the quantum formalism, indistinguishability is expressed via…
I review arguments demonstrating how the concept of "particle" numbers arises in the form of equidistant energy eigenvalues of coupled harmonic oscillators representing free fields. Their quantum numbers (numbers of nodes of the wave…
In the paper we look into the epistemology of quantum theory. The starting point is the previously established mathematical ambiguity. The perspective of our study is the way that Schroedinger described Einstein s idea of physics…
The purpose of this paper is to show that the mathematics of quantum mechanics (QM) is the mathematics of set partitions (which specify indefiniteness and definiteness) linearized to vector spaces, particularly in Hilbert spaces. That is,…
Complementarity was originally introduced as a qualitative concept for the discussion of properties of quantum mechanical objects that are classically incompatible. More recently, complementarity has become a \emph{quantitative} relation…
We have recently showed that it is possible to deal with collections of indistinguishable elementary particles (in the context of quantum mechanics) in a set-theoretical framework by using hidden variables, in a sense. In the present paper…
Quantum mechanics marks a radical departure from the classical understanding of Nature, fostering an inherent randomness which forbids a deterministic description; yet the most fundamental departure arises from something different. As shown…
Quantum Mechanics, almost 80 years after its arrival, is a well established and experimentally not falsified theory. It has predicted and explained a whole series of natural phenomena of a very delicate nature. But its interpretation has…
Quantum Mechanics (QM) has faced deep controversies and debates since its origin when Werner Heisenberg proposed the first mathematical formalism capable to operationally account for what had been recently discovered as the new field of…
The gap between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics has an important interpretive implication: the Universe must have an irreducible fundamental level, which determines the properties of matter at higher levels of organization. We…
I show how quantum mechanics, like the theory of relativity, can be understood as a 'principle theory' in Einstein's sense, and I use this notion to explore the approach to the problem of interpretation developed in my book Interpreting the…