Related papers: Axiomatization of Mechanics
An odd look at "standard" physics (Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Dirac) leading to a radical change of our concept of inertial motion and to new heuristic approaches of gravitation and the cosmological constant.
A quantum mechanical theory is proposed which abandons an external parameter ``time'' in favor of a self-adjoint operator on a Hilbert space whose elements represent measurement events rather than system states. The standard quantum…
There is a paradox in the standard model of cosmology. How can matter in the early universe have been in thermal equilibrium, indicating maximum entropy, but the initial state also have been low entropy (the "past hypothesis"), so as to…
This year marks the hundredth anniversary of Einstein's 1915 landmark paper "Die Feldgleichungen der Gravitation" in which the field equations of general relativity were correctly formulated for the first time, thus rendering general…
Statistical classical mechanics and quantum mechanics are developed and well-known theories that represent a basis for modern physics. The two described theories are well known and have been well studied. As these theories contain numerous…
Gravitation, according to General Relativity, is an attribute of space-time's geometry and hence not a force in the Newtonian sense. This is a consequence of Einstein's equivalence principle, which so far passed all experimental tests with…
A slight modification of one axiom of quantum theory changes a reversible theory into a time asymmetric theory. Whereas the standard Hilbert space axiom does not distinguish mathematically between the space of states (in-states of…
The information-theoretic point of view proposed by Leibniz in 1686 and developed by algorithmic information theory (AIT) suggests that mathematics and physics are not that different. This will be a first-person account of some doubts and…
We derive the Hilbert space formalism of quantum mechanics from epistemic principles. A key assumption is that a physical theory that relies on entities or distinctions that are unknowable in principle gives rise to wrong predictions. An…
The identification of physical subsystems in quantum mechanics as compared to classical mechanics poses significant conceptual challenges, especially in the context of quantum gravity. Traditional approaches associate quantum systems with…
The laws of quantum mechanics are couched in subtle mathematical language. The laws are not usually stated in a compact pedagogical form. Here I present a possible way to correct this. Essential facts can be distilled into seven statements…
It is generally believed that quantum gravity is necessary to resolve the known tensions between general relativity and the quantum field theories of the standard model. Since perturbatively quantized gravity is non-renormalizable, the…
The present form of quantum mechanics is based on the Copenhagen school of interpretation. Einstein did not belong to the Copenhagen school, because he did not believe in probabilistic interpretation of fundamental physical laws. This is…
Following the line of the history, if by one side the electromagnetic theory was consolidated on the 19th century, the emergence of the special and the general relativity theories on the 20th century opened possibilities of further…
Historically, Ehrenfest's theorem (1927) is the first one which shows that classical physics can emerge from quantum physics as a kind of approximation. We recall the theorem in its original form. Next, we highlight its generalizations to…
General relativity required the abandonment of Euclidean geometry. Here we show that quantum theory requires the abandonment of classical logic. We show that the Hilbert space representation of quantum theory is logically inevitable. There…
The space-time of modern physics is tailored on light. We rigorously construct the basic entities needed by kinematics: geometry of the physical space and time, using as tool electromagnetic waves, and particularly light-rays. After such a…
In this paper of "The Epistemology of Contemporary Physics" series we investigate Newton's third law and discuss and analyze its epistemological significance from some aspects with special attention to its relation to the principle of…
Other than scattering problems where perturbation theory is applicable, there are basically two ways to solve problems in physics. One is to reduce the problem to harmonic oscillators, and the other is to formulate the problem in terms of…
We formulate physically-motivated axioms for a physical theory which for systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom uniquely lead to Quantum Mechanics as the only nontrivial consistent theory. Complex numbers and the existence of…