Related papers: "'Formal' vs. 'Empirical' Approaches to Quantum-Cl…
The relationship that is widely presumed to hold between physical theories and their successors, in which the successors in some sense explain the success of the theories they replace, is known commonly as 'reduction.' I argue that one…
We present, in a pedagogical style, many instances of reduction procedures appearing in a variety of physical situations, both classical and quantum. We concentrate on the essential aspects of any reduction procedure, both in the algebraic…
Although classical mechanics and quantum mechanics are separate disciplines, we live in a world where Planck's constant \hbar>0, meaning that the classical and quantum world views must actually {\it coexist}. Traditionally, canonical…
The effective classical/quantum dynamics of a particle constrained on a closed line embedded in a higher dimensional configuration space is analyzed. By considering explicit examples it is shown how different reduction mechanisms produce…
The relationship between classical and quantum theory is of central importance to the philosophy of physics, and any interpretation of quantum mechanics has to clarify it. Our discussion of this relationship is partly historical and…
Familiar formulations of classical and quantum mechanics are shown to follow from a general theory of mechanics based on pure states with an intrinsic probability structure. This theory is developed to the stage where theorems from quantum…
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 relationship according to which one physical theory encompasses the domain of empirical validity of another is widely known as "reduction." Here it is argued that one popular methodology for showing that one theory reduces to another,…
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…
In this paper we discuss the representational realist stance as a pluralist ontic approach to inter-theoretic relationships. Our stance stresses the fact that physical theories require the necessary consideration of a conceptual level of…
In this paper, we investigate the connection between Classical and Quantum Mechanics by dividing Quantum Theory in two parts: - General Quantum Axiomatics (a system is described by a state in a Hilbert space, observables are self-adjoint…
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…
Quantum electrodynamics presents intrinsic limitations in the description of physical processes that make it impossible to recover from it the type of description we have in classical electrodynamics. Hence one cannot consider classical…
A direct classical analog of quantum decoherence is introduced. Similarities and differences between decoherence dynamics examined quantum mechanically and classically are exposed via a second-order perturbative treatment and via a strong…
In spite of all {\bf no-go} theorems (e.g., von Neumann, Kochen and Specker,..., Bell,...) we constructed a realist basis of quantum mechanics. In our model both classical and quantum spaces b are rough images of the fundamental {\bf…
A discussion of the quantum mechanical use of superposition or entangled states shows that descriptions containing only statements about state vectors and experiments outputs are the most suitable for Quantum Mechanics. In particular, it is…
It is argued that the traditional "realist" methodology of physics, according to which human concepts, laws and theories can grasp the essence of reality, is incompatible with the most fruitful interpretation of quantum formalism. The proof…
A general method of quantum-to-classical reduction of quantum dynamics is described. The key aspect of our method is the similarity transformation of the Liouvillian, which provides a new perspective. In conventional studies of quantum…
We look into the ontology of quantum theory as distinct from that of the classical theory in the sciences, following a broadly Kantian tradition and distinguishing between the noumenal and phenomenal realities where the former is…
In this work, we present a logical formalism for reasoning about quantum systems in finite dimension. Contrary to the usual approach in quantum logic, our formalism is based classical first-order logic, which allows us to use the tools of…