Related papers: Non-Integer Multiverse
We shall argue in this paper that a central piece of modern physics does not really belong to physics at all but to elementary probability theory. Given a joint probability distribution J on a set of random variables containing x and y,…
Quantum theory's irreducible empirical core is a probability calculus. While it presupposes the events to which (and on the basis of which) it serves to assign probabilities, and therefore cannot account for their occurrence, it has to be…
Computationalism provides a framework for understanding how a mathematically describable physical world could give rise to conscious observations without the need for dualism. A criterion is proposed for the implementation of computations…
It is often claimed that there are three "realist" versions of quantum mechanics: the de Broglie-Bohm theory or Bohmian mechanics, the spontaneous collapse theories and the many worlds interpretation. We will explain why the two latter…
The inability of Schrodinger's unitary time evolution to describe measurement of a quantum state remains a central foundational problem. It was recently suggested that the unitarity of Schrodinger dynamics can be spontaneously broken,…
I. The arena of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory is the abstract, unobserved and unobservable, M-dimensional formal Hilbert space [not equal to] spacetime. II. The arena of observations and, more generally, of all events (i.e.…
A non-local hidden variables theory for non-relativisitic quantum theory is presented, which gives a realist completion of quantum mechanics, in the sense of a complete description of individual events. The proposed fundamental theory is an…
One would not think that thought experiments could matter to nature, for they are a humble human device. Yet quantum mechanics very naturally frames thought experiments (as distinct from precisely defining what exists). They exemplify the…
In a recent result, Frauchiger and Renner argue that if quantum theory accurately describes complex systems like observers who perform measurements, then "we are forced to give up the view that there is one single reality." Following a…
Newtonian and Schrodinger dynamics can be formulated in a physically meaningful way within the same Hilbert space framework. This fact was recently used to discover an unexpected relation between classical and quantum motions that goes…
The quantum formalism is a ``measurement'' formalism--a phenomenological formalism describing certain macroscopic regularities. We argue that it can be regarded, and best be understood, as arising from Bohmian mechanics, which is what…
It is argued that there is no evidence for causality as a metaphysical relation in quantum phenomena. The assumption that there are no causal laws, but only probabilities for physical processes constrained by symmetries, leads naturally to…
The linear mathematics of quantum mechanics gives many versions of reality instead of the single version we perceive, with the perceived version chosen at random according to a probability law. Because of these peculiarities, the theory…
It is shown that many dissipative phenomena of "old" quantum mechanics which appeared 100 years ago in the form of the statistics of quantum thermal noise and quantum spontaneous jumps, have never been explained by the "new" conservative…
Quantum observables can be identified with vector fields on the sphere of normalized states. The resulting vector representation is used in the paper to undertake a simultaneous treatment of macroscopic and microscopic bodies in quantum…
Two thought experiments are analyzed, revealing that the quantum state of the universe does not contain definitive evidence of the wavefunction collapse. The first thought experiment shows that unitary quantum evolution alone can account…
We prove a theorem showing that quantum mechanics is not directly a stochastic process characterizing Brownian motion but rather its square root. This implies that a complex-valued stochastic process is involved. Schr\"odinger equation is…
In canonical quantization of gravity the wave function of the universe is CPT invariant. Thus, if the quantum state of the universe contains a particular history, than it must contain, with the same probability, the time-reversed image of…
Quantum mechanics introduces the concept of probability at the fundamental level, yielding the measurement problem. On the other hand, recent progress in cosmology has led to the "multiverse" picture, in which our observed universe is only…
Typically, quantum mechanics is thought of as a linear theory with unitary evolution governed by the Schr\"odinger equation. While this is technically true and useful for a physicist, with regards to computation it is an unfortunately…