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A tradition handed down among physicists maintains that classical physics is a perfectly deterministic theory capable of predicting the future with absolute certainty, independently of any interpretations. It also tells that it was quantum…
Because of the non-locality of quantum entanglement, realist approaches to completing quantum mechanics have implications for our conception of space. Quantum gravity also is expected to predict phenomena in which the locality of classical…
A recent phase transition in the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics (RQM) is situated in its historical context, and the novelty of the post-transition viewpoint is questioned.
Besides the purely digital or analog interpretation of reality there is a third possibility which incorporates important aspects of both. This is the cyclic formulation of elementary systems, in which elementary particles are represented as…
Aspects of the full theory of loop quantum gravity can be studied in a simpler context by reducing to symmetric models like cosmological ones. This leads to several applications where loop effects play a significant role when one is…
Combining abstract to laboratory projected quantum states a general analysis of headline quantum phenomena is presented. Standard representation mode is replaced; instead quantum states sustained by elementary material constituents occupy…
String theory developed by demanding consistency with quantum mechanics. In this paper we wish to reverse the reasoning. We pretend open string field theory is a fully consistent definition of the theory - it is at least a self consistent…
The problem of obtaining a realistic, relativistic description of a quantum system is discussed in the context of a simple (light-cone) lattice field theory. A natural stochastic model is proposed which, although non-local, is relativistic…
Although the suspicion that quantum mechanics is emergent has been lingering for a long time, only now we begin to understand how a bridge between classical and quantum mechanics might be squared with Bell's inequalities and other…
We study the classical dynamics of non-relativistic particles endowed with spin. Non-vanishing Zitterbewegung terms appear in the equation of motion also in the small momentum limit. We derive a generalized work-energy theorem which…
Classical physics is generally regarded as deterministic, as opposed to quantum mechanics that is considered the first theory to have introduced genuine indeterminism into physics. We challenge this view by arguing that the alleged…
We address classical and quantum mechanics in a general setting of arbitrary time-dependent transformations. Classical non-relativistic mechanics is formulated as a particular field theory on smooth fibre bundles over a time axis.…
Precise rules are developed in order to formalize the reasoning processes involved in standard non-relativistic quantum mechanics, with the help of analogies from classical physics. A classical or quantum description of a mechanical system…
The landscape of causal relations that can hold among a set of systems in quantum theory is richer than in classical physics. In particular, a pair of time-ordered systems can be related as cause and effect or as the effects of a common…
Quantum mechanics marks a radical departure from the classical understanding of Nature, fostering an inherent randomness which forbids a deterministic description; yet the most fundamental departure arises from something different. As shown…
Quantum mechanics is an extremely successful theory of nature and yet it lacks an intuitive axiomatization. In contrast, the special theory of relativity is well understood and is rooted into natural or experimentally justified postulates.…
Quantum theory makes the most accurate empirical predictions and yet it lacks simple, comprehensible physical principles from which the theory can be uniquely derived. A broad class of probabilistic theories exist which all share some…
String theory provides the only consistent framework so far that unifies all interactions including gravity. We discuss gravity and cosmology in string theory. Conventional notions from general relativity like geometry, topology etc. are…
We describe both quantum particles and classical particles in terms of a classical statistical ensemble, characterized by a probability distribution in phase space. By use of a wave function in phase space both can be treated in the same…
This is an introduction to quantum gravity, aimed at a fairly general audience and concentrating on what have historically two main approaches to quantum gravity: the covariant and canonical programs (string theory is not covered). The…