Related papers: Niels Bohr on the wave function and the classical/…
Niels Bohr's doctrine of the primacy of "classical concepts" is arguably his most criticized and misunderstood view. We present a new, careful historical analysis that makes clear that Bohr's doctrine was primarily an epistemological…
In this paper I present and critically discuss the main strategies that Bohr used and could have used to fend off the charge that his interpretation does not provide a clear-cut distinction between the classical and the quantum domain. In…
Niels Bohr famously insisted on the indispensability of what he termed "classical concepts." In the context of the decoherence program, on the other hand, it has become fashionable to talk about the "dynamical emergence of classicality"…
It is now widely accepted that environmental entanglement and the resulting decoherence processes play a crucial role in the quantum-to-classical transition and the emergence of "classicality" from quantum mechanics. To this extent,…
The field of interpretation of quantum mechanics emerged in an attempt to solve the measurement problem. This turned on the perception that Niels Bohr avoided addressing the measurement problem by taking an instrumentalist view of quantum…
In a recent note David Mermin attributed the idea that wave function collapse is a physical process to a misunderstanding of probability and the role it plays in quantum mechanics. There are, however, further misconceptions at play, some of…
A brief account of the world view of classical physics is given first. We then recapitulate as to why the Copenhagen interpretation of the quantum mechanics had to renounce most of the attractive features of the clasical world view such as…
What Niels Bohr called the `epistemological lesson' of `complementarity' was the result of reasoning analogically from the classical conception of a mechanical state to a new quantum mechanical conception of an `object' in a mechanical…
The complementary wave and particle character of quantum objects (or quantons) was pointed out by Niels Bohr. This wave-particle duality, in the context of the two-slit experiment, is now described not just as two extreme cases of wave and…
Quantum mechanics challenges classical intuitions of space, time, and causality via the superposition principle, which allows systems to exist in multiple states simultaneously. Niels Bohr addressed these paradoxes through his…
In our quantum mechanics courses, measurement is usually taught in passing, as an ad-hoc procedure involving the ugly collapse of the wave function. No wonder we search for more satisfying alternatives to the Copenhagen interpretation. But…
All measurable predictions of classical mechanics can be reproduced from a quantum-like interpretation of a nonlinear Schrodinger equation. The key observation leading to classical physics is the fact that a wave function that satisfies a…
Niels Bohr proposed that the outcome of the measurement becomes objective and real, and, hence, classical, when its results can be communicated by classical means. In this work we revisit Bohr's postulate using modern tools from the quantum…
In the well known Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum mechanics, advocated by N. Bohr, the physical objects and the experimental results can be described only in a macroscopic language, leaving any possible microscopic description as…
Scholars of the history and philosophy of science have asked what would decolonized science would look like. This paper develops an answer by interrogating the assumption that observations need to be recorded and communicated using the…
It is argued that Niels Bohr ultimately arrived at positivistic and antirealist-flavored statements because of weaknesses in his initial objective of accounting for measurement in physical terms. Bohr's investigative approach faced a…
Superconductivity is macroscopic quantum phenomenon. From force of habit most physicists pay no heed to a paradoxicality of this fact. Niels Bohr considered quantum mechanics as atomic physics and the paradoxical quantum principles may be…
In this work we analyze the deep link between the 20th Century positivist re-foundation of physics and the famous measurement problem of quantum mechanics. We attempt to show why this is not an "obvious" nor "self evident" problem for the…
The spectacular successes of quantum physics have made it a commonplace to assert that we live in a quantum world. This idea seems to imply a kind of "quantum fundamentalism" according to which everything in the universe (if not the…
The measurement problem in quantum mechanics originates in the inability of the Schr\"odinger equation to predict definite outcomes of measurements. This is due to the lack of objectivity of the eigenstates of the measuring apparatus. Such…