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The theory of measurement is employed to elucidate the physical basis of general relativity. For measurements involving phenomena with intrinsic length or time scales, such scales must in general be negligible compared to the (translational…
We suggest a contextual realist interpretation of relational quantum mechanics. The principal point is a correct understanding of the concept of reality and taking into account the categorical distinction between the ideal and the real.…
The concepts of relative velocity and acceleration, deviation velocity and acceleration and relative momentum of point particles in spaces (manifolds), the tangent bundle of which is equipped with a transport along paths, are introduced. If…
Since its inception, quantum theory has been the subject of fierce interpretive controversy, which persists to this day. Disputed topics include the basic ontology and dynamics of the theory, the role (if any) of measurement, the meaning of…
While adhering to the formalism of Special and General Relativity, this paper considers the interpretation of clock rates and the rating of clocks in detail. We also pay particular attention to the crucial requirement of reciprocity between…
We set out a fundamental ontology of atomism in terms of matter points. While being most parsimonious, this ontology is able to match both classical and quantum mechanics, and it remains a viable option for any future theory of cosmology…
Quantum mechanics is not about 'quantum states': it is about values of physical variables. I give a short fresh presentation and update on the $relational$ perspective on the theory, and a comment on its philosophical implications.
Two people may claim both to be naturalists, but have divergent conceptions of basic elements of the natural world which lead them to mean different things when they talk about laws of nature, or states, or the role of mathematics in…
An ontology of Leibnizian relationalism, consisting in distance relations among sparse matter points and their change only, is well recognized as a serious option in the context of classical mechanics. In this paper, we investigate how this…
We propose a reformulation of quantum mechanics in which the distinction between definite and indefinite becomes the fundamental primitive. Inspired by suggestions of Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Dyson that the past can't be described in…
Dynamics, the physical change in time and a pillar of natural sciences, can be regarded as an emergent phenomenon when the system of interest is part of a larger, static one. This "relational approach to time", in which the system's…
A goal of physics is to understand the greatest possible breadth of natural phenomena in terms of the most economical set of basic concepts. However, as the understanding of physics has developed historically, its pedagogy and language have…
Contemporary relativity theory is restricted in two points: (1) a use of the Riemannian space-time geometry and (2) a use of inadequate (nonrelativistic) concepts. Reasons of these restrictions are analysed in [1]. Eliminating these…
Gravity can arise in a conventional non-Abelian gauge theory in which a specific phenomenon takes place. Suppose there is a condensation of polarized instantons and antiinstantons in the vacuum state. Then the excitations of the gauge field…
I discuss the ontological assumptions and implications of General Relativity. I maintain that General Relativity is a theory about gravitational fields, not about space-time. The latter is a more basic ontological category, that emerges…
Dynamics, the study of change, is normally the subject of mechanics. Whether the chosen mechanics is ``fundamental'' and deterministic or ``phenomenological'' and stochastic, all changes are described relative to an external time. Here we…
The electromagnetic interaction is characterised by discrete states for bound systems in contrast to continuous states for unbound systems. The difference merely arises because the characteristic equations do not exhibit the same behaviour…
A notion of time is fundamental in the study of dynamical systems. Time arises as a standalone dynamical system and also in solutions or trajectories as a special kind of map between systems. We characterize time by a universal property and…
Quantum mechanics is usually presented starting from a series of postulates about the mathematical framework. In this work we show that those same postulates can be derived by assuming that measurements are discrete interactions: that is,…
This is the first of a series of papers that we intend to publish about the epistemology of fundamental physics in its current state. One of the main objectives of these papers is to improve our understanding of fundamental physics (and…