Related papers: Relationalism
It is rarely emphasized in modern physics textbooks that our definitions of space and time have to reflect their complete interdependence. Our intuitive methods of always picturing one-dimensional space as a sum of unit-length rods and of…
This article suggests that thinking about the role of reference frames can provide new insight into Extended Wigner's Friend scenarios. This involves appealing to symmetries to make a principled distinction between properties of a system…
Local observation is an important problem both for the foundations of a quantum theory of gravity and for applications to quantum-cosmological problems such as eternal inflation. While gauge invariant local observables can't be defined, it…
Is there a version of the notions of "state" and "observable" wide enough to apply naturally and in a covariant manner to relativistic systems? I discuss here a tentative answer.
Quantum measurement predictions are consistent with relativity for macroscopic observations, but there is no consensus on how to explain this consistency in fundamental terms. The prevailing assumption is that the relativistic structure of…
Relational configurations are defined by the relationships between systems. Individualist configurations are defined by the properties of individual systems. Non-embeddable relational configurations are those for which there is no…
Time plays a crucial role in the performance of computing systems. The accurate modelling of logical devices, and of their physical implementations, requires an appropriate representation of time and of all properties that depend on this…
This paper forms part of a wider campaign: to deny pointillisme. That is the doctrine that a physical theory's fundamental quantities are defined at points of space or of spacetime, and represent intrinsic properties of such points or…
Conditional independence is a crucial concept supporting adequate modelling and efficient reasoning in probabilistics. In knowledge representation, the idea of conditional independence has also been introduced for specific formalisms, such…
A new formulation of relativistic quantum mechanics is proposed in the framework of the rest-frame instant form of dynamics with its instantaneous Wigner 3-spaces and with its description of the particle world-lines by means of derived…
Our understanding about things is conceptual. By stating that we reason about objects, it is in fact not the objects but concepts referring to them that we manipulate. Now, so long just as we acknowledge infinitely extending notions such as…
Constructivist lagrangian propiates a diverse approach to field theory. Introduce the set action. Consider fields families under a same symmetry group. The resulting fields set extends the standard atomist field theory to a whole field…
Within the past fifteen years the use of the concept of "relativistic mass" has been on the decline and has been replaced by the concept of "proper mass" (aka "rest mass") - ?simply referred to as "mass" and labeled "m" by its proponents.…
It is argued that substantial portions of both Newtonian particle mechanics and general relativity can be viewed as relational (rather than absolute) theories. I furthermore use the relational particle models as toy models to investigate…
In this essay we describe a platonic metaphysics where time is a fundamental idea such that the passage of time is independent of observers and the laws of physics. Furthermore, time serves to distinguish between a real and an abstract…
In this paper we address a deeply interesting debate that took place at the end of the last millennia between David Mermin, Adan Cabello and Michiel Seevinck, regarding the meaning of relationalism within quantum theory. In a series of…
The paper presents an attempt to suggest an alternative way of considering the fundamentals of Einstein's special relativity theory. Its formulation based on introducing an inertial reference system by rigid linking of clocks to a free…
In this paper I present and critically discuss the main strategies that Bohr used and could have used to fend off the charge that his interpretation does not provide a clear-cut distinction between the classical and the quantum domain. In…
This paper forms part of a wider campaign: to deny pointillisme. That is the doctrine that a physical theory's fundamental quantities are defined at points of space or of spacetime, and represent intrinsic properties of such points or…
In the absence of an external frame of reference physical degrees of freedom must describe relations between systems. Using a simple model, we investigate how such a relational quantum theory naturally arises by promoting reference systems…