Related papers: How to derive quantum formalism from first princip…
In this paper and a companion paper, we attempt to systematically investigate the possibility that the concept of information may enable a derivation of the quantum formalism from a set of physically comprehensible postulates. To do so, we…
We argue about a conceptual approach to quantum formalism. Starting from philosophical conjectures (Platonism, Idealism and Realism) as basic ontic elements (namely: math world, data world, and state of matter), we will analyze the quantum…
In a companion paper (hereafter referred to as Paper I), we have presented an attempt to derive the finite-dimensional abstract quantum formalism from a set of physically comprehensible assumptions. In this paper, we formulate a…
Quantum mechanics is based on a series of postulates which lead to a very good description of the microphysical realm but which have, up to now, not been derived from first principles. In the present work, we suggest such a derivation in…
The quantum theory of a harmonic oscillator with a time dependent frequency arises in several important physical problems, especially in the study of quantum field theory in an external background. While the mathematics of this system is…
We propose an exercise in which one attempts to deduce the formalism of quantum mechanics solely from phenomenological observations. The only assumed inputs are the multi-time probability distributions estimated from the results of…
We propose an exercise in which one attempts to deduce the formalism of quantum mechanics solely from phenomenological observations. The only assumed inputs are obtained through sequential probing of quantum systems; no presuppositions…
Quantum field theory is the traditional solution to the problems inherent in melding quantum mechanics with special relativity. However, it has also long been known that an alternative first-quantized formulation can be given for…
Information-theoretic derivations of the formalism of quantum theory have recently attracted much attention. We analyze the axioms underlying a few such derivations and propose a conceptual framework in which, by combining several…
The most fundamental properties of quantum entropy are derived by considering the union of two ensembles. We discuss the limits these properties put on an entropy measure and obtain that they uniquely determine the form of the entropy…
After the development of a self-consistent quantum formalism nearly a century ago there began a quest for how to interpret the theoretical constructs of the formalism. In fact, the pursuit of new interpretations of quantum mechanics…
A realistic axiomatic formulation of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics for a single microsystem with spin is presented, from which the most important theorems of the theory can be deduced. In comparison with previous formulations, the…
We present a heuristic derivation of Born's rule and unitary transforms in Quantum Mechanics, from a simple set of axioms built upon a physical phenomenology of quantization. This approach naturally leads to the usual quantum formalism,…
These notes are an elaboration on: (i) a short course that I gave at the IPhT-Saclay in May-June 2012; (ii) a previous letter on reversibility in quantum mechanics. They present an introductory, but hopefully coherent, view of the main…
Quantum electrodynamics is the well-accepted theory. However, we feel it is useful to look at formalisms that provide alternative ways to describe light, because in the recent years the development of quantum field theories based primarily…
In quantum theory, a weak value is a complex number with a somewhat technical definition: it is a ratio whose numerator is the matrix element of a self-adjoint operator and whose denominator is the inner product of a corresponding pair of…
Physical interpretations of the time-symmetric formulation of quantum mechanics, due to Aharonov, Bergmann, and Lebowitz are discussed in terms of weak values. The most direct, yet somewhat naive, interpretation uses the time-symmetric…
In this paper, we show how information geometry, the natural geometry of discrete probability distributions, can be used to derive the quantum formalism. The derivation rests upon three elementary features of quantum phenomena, namely…
Quantum theory is usually formulated in terms of abstract mathematical postulates, involving Hilbert spaces, state vectors, and unitary operators. In this work, we show that the full formalism of quantum theory can instead be derived from…
Recently there has been much interest in deriving the quantum formalism and the set of quantum correlations from simple axioms. In this paper, we provide a step-by-step derivation of the quantum formalism that tackles both these problems…