Related papers: Predictions and Primitive Ontology in Quantum Foun…
The paper seeks to make progress from stating primitive ontology theories of quantum physics, notably Bohmian mechanics, the GRW matter density theory and the GRW flash theory, to assessing these theories. Four criteria are set out: (a)…
In the conventional formulation of quantum mechanics, the initial description is given only for the physical system under study. It factors out the state for the experimenter. We argue that such description is incomplete and can lead to…
If the systems of quantum theory are thought of as elementary information carriers in the first place, rather than elementary constituents of matter, and their connections are logical connections within a given algorithm, rather than…
Experiments in cognitive science and decision theory show that the ways in which people combine concepts and make decisions cannot be described by classical logic and probability theory. This has serious implications for applied disciplines…
Quantum mechanics has lacked a widely recognized interpretation since its birth. Many of these are still under consideration because interpretations are tough or impossible to disprove experimentally. We show how to distinguish…
In this introductory note, I describe my particular view of the notion of ontological commitments as honest and pragmatic working hypotheses that assume the existence (out there) of certain entities represented by the symbols in our theory.…
In cosmology, we would like to explain our observations and predict future observations from theories of the entire universe. Such cosmological theories make ontological assumptions of what entities exist and what their properties and…
This note presents two ideas. The first one is that quantum theory has a fundamentally perturbative basis but leads to nonperturbative states which it would seem natural to take into account in the foundation of a theory of quantum…
Recently foundational issues of applicability of the formalism of quantum mechanics (QM) to cognitive psychology, decision making, and psychophysics attracted a lot of interest. In particular, in \cite{DKBB} the possibility to use of the…
Underlying any theory of physics is a layer of conceptual frames. They connect the mathematical structures used in theoretical models with physical phenomena, but they also constitute our fundamental assumptions about reality. Many of the…
The major conceptual difficulties of quantum mechanics are analyzed. They are: the notion "wave-particle", the probabilistic interpretation of the Schroedinger wave \psi-function and hence the probability amplitude and its phase, long-range…
The role of probability in quantum mechanics is reviewed, with a discussion of the ``orthodox'' versus the statistical interpretive frameworks, and of a number of related issues. After a brief summary of sources of unease with quantum…
These are the notes written for the talk given at the workshop Rethinking foundations of physics 2016. In section 2, a derivation of the the quantum formalism starting from propositional calculus (quantum logic) is reviewed, pointing out…
The interpretation of quantum mechanics has been a problem since its founding days. A large contribution to the discussion of possible interpretations of quantum mechanics is given by the so-called impossibility proofs for hidden variable…
Entropic arguments are shown to play a central role in the foundations of quantum theory. We prove that probabilities are given by the modulus squared of wave functions, and that the time evolution of states is linear and also unitary.
Based on ideas of quantum theory of open systems and psychological dual system theory we propose two novel versions of Non-Boolean logic. The first version can be interpreted in our opinion as simplified description of primitive…
We present a formally deterministic representation for quantum history theories where we obtain the probabilistic structure via a discrete contextual variable: no continuous probabilities are as such involved at the primal level -- we…
The traditional, standard approach to quantum theory is to assume that the theory ``really'' contains only unitary physical dynamics--i.e., that the only physically quantifiable evolution is that given by the time-dependent Schrodinger…
I present and defend a new ontology for quantum theories (or ``interpretations'' of quantum theory) called Generative Quantum Theory (GQT). GQT postulates different sets of features, and the combination of these different features can help…
A common learning goal for modern physics instructors is for students to recognize a difference between the experimental uncertainty of classical physics and the fundamental uncertainty of quantum mechanics. Our studies suggest this…