Related papers: My Struggles with the Block Universe
Quantum mechanics---the theory describing the fundamental workings of nature---is famously counterintuitive: it predicts that a particle can be in two places at the same time, and that two remote particles can be inextricably and…
In the Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote, " 'I' is not the name of a person, nor 'here' of a place, .... But they are connected with names. ... [And] it is characteristic of physics not to use these words." This…
Merging disciplines has led to incredible learnings and breakthroughs throughout history, including the discovery of quantum computing: a cross between computation and quantum physics. In this paper, I will discuss how we can cross quantum…
We propose a system of information-theoretic axioms from which we derive the formalism of quantum theory. Part I is devoted to the conceptual foundations of the information-theoretic approach. We argue that this approach belongs to the…
We begin by discussing the history of quantum logic, dividing it into three eras or lives. The first life has to do with Birkhoff and von Neumann's algebraic approach in the 1930's. The second life has to do with attempt to understand…
I review some recent advances in foundational research at Pavia QUIT group. The general idea is that there is only Quantum Theory without quantization rules, and the whole Physics---including space-time and relativity--is emergent from the…
It is suggested that the "B" in QBism rightfully stands for Bohr. The paper begins by explaining why Bohr seems obscure to most physicists. Having identified the contextuality of physical quantities as Bohr's essential contribution to…
This is a brief, popular (non-technical) introduction (in Italian language) to the problem of quantum gravity, to the recent perspective of emergent spacetime and to its (potential) realization in the context of group field theories, in…
We reconstruct the explicit formalism of qubit quantum theory from elementary rules on an observer's information acquisition. Our approach is purely operational: we consider an observer O interrogating a system S with binary questions and…
I offer a case that quantum query complexity still has loads of enticing and fundamental open problems -- from relativized QMA versus QCMA and BQP versus IP, to time/space tradeoffs for collision and element distinctness, to polynomial…
This review, intended for a popular audience, was originally published in the online magazine Aeon on 28 January 2014. It is reproduced on the arxiv with permission. The online version (without references) can be found at…
Quantum computation offers the potential to solve fundamental yet otherwise intractable problems across a range of active fields of research. Recently, universal quantum-logic gate sets - the building blocks for a quantum computer - have…
This book is a philosopher's introduction to the idea that our universe is just one of many universes. I present and assess three versions of the idea: one version from philosophy, and two from physics. In short, they are: all the logically…
QBism has long recognized quantum states, POVM elements, Kraus operators, and even unitary operations to be cut from the same cloth: They express aspects of an agent's belief system concerning the consequences (for her) of actions she might…
Quantum computing comes with the potential to push computational boundaries in various domains including, e.g., cryptography, simulation, optimization, and machine learning. Exploiting the principles of quantum mechanics, new algorithms can…
This essay presents an accessible introduction to the basic motivations to seek a quantum theory of gravity. It focuses on one approach- loop quantum gravity - as an example of the rich philosophical issues that arise when we try to combine…
This is a contribution to a book on quantum gravity and philosophy. I discuss nature and origin of the problem of quantum gravity. I examine the knowledge that may guide us in addressing this problem, and the reliability of such knowledge.…
For more than half a century, dualities have been at the heart of modern physics. From quantum mechanics to statistical mechanics, condensed matter physics, quantum field theory and quantum gravity, dualities have proven useful in solving…
In this conceptual paper, we discuss quantum formalisms which do not use the famous Axiom of Choice. We also consider the fundamental problem which addresses the (in)correctness of having the complex numbers as the base field for Hilbert…
This paper contains a critique of the standard inflationary account of the origin of cosmological structures from quantum fluctuations in the early universe. This critique can be thought to be purely philosophical in nature, but I prefer to…