Related papers: The Gibbs Paradox Revisited
It is shown that the Gibbs paradox is actually paralogism, viz. an erroneous statement sounding credible due to the statistic-mechanical interpretation of entropy as a measure of "any and all" irreversibility. As an alternative, the…
The prediction of the N-box paradox, that whichever box is opened will contain the record of the particle having passed through it, is traced to a failure to specify whether the other boxes are distinguishable or indistinguishable. These…
A characteristical property of a classical physical theory is that the observables are real functions taking an exact outcome on every (pure) state; in a quantum theory, at the contrary, a given observable on a given state can take several…
According to the Received View identical quantum particles are a previously unknown kind of objects that do not possess individuality. In this Chapter we discuss this view, criticize it, and propose an alternative. According to this…
The study of entanglement in systems composed of identical particles raises interesting challenges with far-reaching implications in both, our fundamental understanding of the physics of composite quantum systems, and our capability of…
It is demonstrated that the reason for the diversity of interpretations of quantum mechanics is that they are not connected by continuity relations with classical physics, and also the reason is the impossibility of operationalist…
The pigeonhole principle: "If you put three pigeons in two pigeonholes at least two of the pigeons end up in the same hole" is an obvious yet fundamental principle of Nature as it captures the very essence of counting. Here however we show…
Here we continue with the ideas expressed in "On the strangeness of quantum mechanics" aiming to demonstrate more concretely how this philosophical outlook might be used as a key for resolving the measurement problem. We will address in…
It has been experimentally demonstrated that quantum coherence can persist in macroscopic phenomena [J.R. Friedman et al.,Nature, 406 (2000) 43]. To face the challenge of this new fact, in this article QM in its standard form is assumed to…
The many-identical-particle quantum correlations are revisited utilizing the machinery of basic group theory, especially that of the group of permutations. It is done with the purpose to obtain precise definitions of effective distinct…
The postulate that coordinate and momentum representations are related to each other by the Fourier transform has been accepted from the beginning of quantum theory. As a consequence, coordinate wave functions of photons emitted by stars…
There are reasons to doubt that making sense of the wave function (other than as a probability algorithm) will help with the project of making sense of quantum mechanics. The consistency of the quantum-mechanical correlation laws with the…
In this work, we show that very natural, apparently simple problems in quantum measurement theory can be undecidable even if their classical analogues are decidable. Undecidability hence appears as a genuine quantum property here. Formally,…
Individual quantum objects display inseparable coexisting wave-like properties and particle-like properties; such inseparable coexistence can seem paradoxical and mind-boggling. The apparent paradox is resolved by the unified theory of…
Quantum mechanics, one of the most successful theories in the history of science, was created to account for physical systems not describable by classical physics. Though it is consistent with all experiments conducted thus far, many of its…
The contemporary controversy about the fundamental obscurity in quantum mechanics keeps on the old one about the aim of science, which was between the founders of the quantum theory. The orthodox quantum mechanics could be created only at…
The question of the origin of the Gibbs-factorials is reconsidered. It is argued, using the example of the Brownian motion, that their appearance in classical statistical calculations cannot in general be traced back to the symmetry…
A number of phenomena generally believed characteristic of quantum mechanics and seen as interpretively problematic--the incompatibility and value-indeterminacy of variables, the non-existence of dispersion-free states, the failure of the…
Quantum coherence, a basic feature of quantum mechanics residing in superpositions of quantum states, is a resource for quantum information processing. Coherence emerges in a fundamentally different way for nonidentical and identical…
Physical superpositions exist both in classical and in quantum physics. However, what is exactly meant by 'superposition' in each case is extremely different. In this paper we discuss some of the multiple interpretations which exist in the…