Related papers: Which fine-tuning arguments are fine?
Physics beyond the Standard Model can manifest itself as both new light states and heavy degrees of freedom. In this paper, we assume that the former comprise only a sterile neutrino, $N$. Therefore, the most agnostic description of the new…
One of the most significant debates of our time is whether our macroscopic world (i) naturally emerges from quantum mechanics or (ii) requires new physics. We argue for the latter and propose a simple gravitational self-decoherence…
The question of what ontological message (if any) is encoded in the formalism of contemporary physics is, to say the least, controversial. The reasons for this state of affairs are psychological and neurobiological. The processes by which…
Nonlinear modifications of quantum theory are considered potential candidates for the theory of quantum gravity, with the intuitive argument that since Einstein field equations are nonlinear, quantum gravity should be nonlinear as well.…
The main result of this paper is a collection of conservative naturalness bounds on minimal extensions of the standard model by (vector-like) fermionic or scalar gauge multiplets. Within, we advocate for an intuitive and physical concept of…
The properties of an alternative definition of quantum entropy, based on Wigner functions, are discussed. Such definition emerges naturally from the Wigner representation of quantum mechanics, and can easily quantify the amount of…
The observable universe is necessarily hospitable for life. There are indications, however, that the laws of physics and cosmological parameters need not take the form and values observed, and if they were slightly different life could not…
Quantum gravity places entirely new challenges on the formulation of a consistent theory as well as on an extraction of potentially observable effects. Quantum corrections due to the gravitational field are commonly expected to be tiny…
Gathering data through measurements is at the basis of every experimental science. Ideally, measurements should be repeatable and, when extracting only coarse-grained data, they should allow the experimenter to retrieve the finer details at…
In scenarios where the Higgs is viewed as a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson (pNGB) the question of naturalness finds itself, from a phenomenological perspective, at a tipping point between direct searches and precision. If, by the end of the…
Constructivist epistemology posits that all truths are knowable. One might ask to what extent constructivism is compatible with naturalized epistemology and knowledge obtained from inference-making using successful scientific theories. If…
Historically, appearance of the quantum theory led to a prevailing view that Nature is indeterministic. The arguments for the indeterminism and proposals for indeterministic and deterministic approaches are reviewed. These include collapse…
Classical mathematics (involving such notions as infinitely small/large and continuity) is usually treated as fundamental while finite mathematics is treated as inferior which is used only in special applications. We first argue that the…
We propose a model of a confining dark sector, dark technicolor, that communicates with the Standard Model through the Higgs portal. In this model electroweak symmetry breaking and dark matter share a common origin, and the electroweak…
It is the purpose of the present article to collect arguments for, that there should exist in fact -- although not necessarily yet found -- some law, which imply an adjustment to special features to occur in the future. In our own "complex…
This note is a critical examination of the argument of Frauchiger and Renner (Nature Communications 9:3711 (2018)), in which they claim to show that three reasonable assumptions about the use of quantum mechanics jointly lead to a…
We present a supersymmetric model of electroweak symmetry-breaking exhibiting improved naturalness, wherein the stop mass can be pushed beyond the reach of the Large Hadron Collider without unnatural fine tuning. This implies that…
Mathematics and its relation to the physical universe have been the topic of speculation since the days of Pythagoras. Several different views of the nature of mathematics have been considered: Realism - mathematics exists and is…
We show that the quantum computational speedup of quantum algorithms is due to their teleological character, their being evolutions toward a goal (the solution of the problem) with an attractor in the very goal they will produce in the…
Three problems stand in the way of deriving classical theories from quantum mechanics: those of realist interpretation, of classical properties and of quantum measurement. Recently, we have identified some tacit assumptions that lie at the…