Related papers: Quantum Mechanics: From Realism to Intuitionism
The author's opinion on the interpretation of quantum mechanics is further elucidated. Not only may quantum mechanics be a description of the sub-microscopic world that is profoundly different from what is often asserted, particularly…
In a recent paper (arXiv:1111.3328), Pusey, Barrett and Rudolph claim to prove that statistical interpretations of quantum mechanics do not work. In fact, their proof assumes that all statistical interpretations must be based on hidden…
During many years since the birth of quantum mechanics, instrumentalist interpretations prevailed: the meaning of the theory was expressed in terms of measurements results. But in the last decades, several attempts to interpret it from a…
Non-relativistic quantum mechanics is shown to emerge from classical mechanics through the requirement of a relativity principle based on special transformations acting on position and momentum uncertainties. These transformations keep the…
A particle is described as a non-spreading wave packet satisfying a linear equation within the framework of special relativity. Young's and other interference experiments are explained with a hypothesis that there is a coupling interaction…
Nonlinear modifications of quantum mechanics have a troubled history. They were initially studied for many promising reasons: resolving the measurement problem, testing the limits of standard quantum mechanics, and reconciling it with…
A century after the discovery of quantum mechanics, the meaning of quantum mechanics still remains elusive. This is largely due to the puzzling nature of the wave function, the central object in quantum mechanics. If we are realists about…
We propose a semantic representation of the standard quantum logic QL within a classical, normal modal logic, and this via a lattice-embedding of orthomodular lattices into Boolean algebras with one modal operator. Thus our classical logic…
By formulating the axioms of quantum mechanics, von Neumann also laid the foundations of a "quantum probability theory". As such, it is regarded a generalization of the "classical probability theory" due to Kolmogorov. Outside of quantum…
A goal of most interpretations of quantum mechanics is to avoid the apparent intrusion of the observer into the measurement process. Such intrusion is usually seen to arise because observation somehow selects a single actuality from among…
An attempt is made to formulate quantum mechanics (QM) in physical rather than in mathematical terms. It is argued that the appropriate conceptual framework for QM is "contextual objectivity", which includes an objective definition of the…
Feynman famously asserted that interference is the only real mystery in quantum mechanics (QM). It is concluded that the reason for this mystery, and thereby the related mysteries of complementarity, non-commutativity of observables, the…
Despite the impressive amount of literature on the foundations of quantum mechanics, the relevance of symmetry in interpretation is not properly acknowledged. In fact, although it is usually said that quantum mechanics is invariant under…
It is argued that the traditional "realist" methodology of physics, according to which human concepts, laws and theories can grasp the essence of reality, is incompatible with the most fruitful interpretation of quantum formalism. The proof…
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---the theory describing the fundamental workings of nature---is famously counterintuitive: it predicts that a particle can be in two places at the same time, and that two remote particles can be inextricably and…
Quantum mechanics is more than the derivation of straightforward theorems about vector spaces, Hilbert spaces and functional analysis. In order to be applicable to experiment and technology, those theorems need interpretation and meaning.…
Interpretations of key concepts, such as uncertainty relations, kinetic energy, value of an observable, probability distributions, the projection or collapse of a wave function postulate, and discrete versus continuous values, that appear…
We apply the machinery of projection lattices and von Neumann algebras to analyze the question of how modal interpretations can (and do) circumvent von Neumann's infamous 'no-hidden-variables' theorem.
The question about the existence of so-called ``hidden'' variables in quantum mechanics and the perception of the completeness of quantum mechanics are two sides of the same coin. Quantum analytical mechanics constitutes a completion of…