Related papers: Distinguishing Causality Principles
In this position paper we discuss three main shortcomings of existing approaches to counterfactual causality from the computer science perspective, and sketch lines of work to try and overcome these issues: (1) causality definitions should…
In general relativity, `causal structure' refers to the partial order on space-time points (or regions) that encodes time-like relationships. Recently, quantum information and quantum foundations saw the emergence of a `causality…
Bell appealed to the theory of relativity in formulating his principle of local causality. But he maintained that quantum field theories do not conform to that principle, even when their field equations are relativistically covariant and…
In this article we set out to understand the significance of the process matrix formalism and the quantum causal modelling programme for ongoing disputes about the role of causation in fundamental physics. We argue that the process matrix…
Causality imposes strong restrictions on the type of operators that may be observables in relativistic quantum theories. In fact, causal violations arise when computing conditional probabilities for certain partial causally connected…
It is often claimed that one cannot locate a notion of causation in fundamental physical theories. The reason most commonly given is that the dynamics of those theories do not support any distinction between the past and the future, and…
A recent framework of quantum theory with no global causal order predicts the existence of "causally nonseparable" processes. Some of these processes produce correlations incompatible with any causal order (they violate so-called "causal…
Recent developments in the formalisation of quantum causal structures have made it possible to test and compare hypotheses about causal structure empirically, rather than being a-priori assumptions. Such differences in causal structure may…
Causality has been often confused with the notion of determinism. It is mandatory to separate the two notions in view of the debate about quantum foundations. Quantum theory provides an example of causal not-deterministic theory. Here we…
Most of the approaches to the construction of a theory of quantum gravity share some principles which do not have specific experimental support up to date. Two of these principles are relevant for our discussion: (i) the gravitational field…
Four principles are proposed to underlie the quantum theory of gravity. We show that these suffice to recover the Einstein equations. We also suggest that MOND results from a modification of the classical equivalence principle, due to…
It has long been recognized that certain quantum correlations are incompatible with particular assumption about classical causal structure. Given a causal structure of unknown classicality, the presence of such correlations certifies the…
Causality is one of the most fundamental notions in physics. Generalized probabilistic theories (GPTs) and the process matrix framework incorporate it in different forms. However, a direct connection between these frameworks remains…
We analyse a quantum-like Bayesian Network that puts together cause/effect relationships and semantic similarities between events. These semantic similarities constitute acausal connections according to the Synchronicity principle and…
Reichenbach's principle asserts that if two observed variables are found to be correlated, then there should be a causal explanation of these correlations. Furthermore, if the explanation is in terms of a common cause, then the conditional…
In causal set theory, there are three ambiguous concepts that this article tries to provide a solution to resolve these ambiguities. These three ambiguities in Planck's scale are: the causal relationship between events, the position of the…
Quantum nonseparability is a central feature of quantum mechanics, and raises important philosophical questions. Interestingly, a particular theoretical development of quantum mechanics, called the process matrix formalism (PMF), features…
Since the quantum field theory treats a system of particles, there must be a distribution which is associated with the system of particles. It means that a meaningful quantity is adjoined in the system of particles. It seems that these…
Certain approaches to quantum gravity, such as the one based on the concept of purely virtual particles (fakeons), sacrifice the cause-effect relation at very small scales to reconcile renormalizability with unitarity. Other developments…
Bell's 1964 theorem causes a severe problem for the notion that correlations require explanation, encapsulated in Reichenbach's Principle of Common Cause. Despite being a hallmark of scientific thought, dropping the principle has been…