Related papers: Classical uncertainty in predicting the future
Quantum mechanics forces us to reconsider certain aspects of classical causality. The 'central mystery' of quantum mechanics manifests in different ways, depending on the interpretation. This mystery can be formulated as the possibility of…
The most striking observable feature of our indeterministic quantum universe is the wide range of time, place, and scale on which the deterministic laws of classical physics hold to an excellent approximation. This essay describes how this…
We discuss the distinction between the notion of partial observable and the notion of complete observable. Mixing up the two is frequently a source of confusion. The distinction bears on several issues related to observability, such as (i)…
The initial value problem is well-defined on a class of spacetimes broader than the globally hyperbolic geometries for which existence and uniqueness theorems are traditionally proved. Simple examples are the time-nonorientable spacetimes…
Spacetime singularities in general relativity are commonly thought to be problematic, in that they signal a breakdown in the theory. We address the question of how to interpret this breakdown, restricting our attention to classical…
How much of the uncertainty in predicting measurement outcomes for non-commuting quantum observables is genuinely quantum mechanical? We provide a natural decomposition of the total entropic uncertainty of two non-commuting observables into…
A suitable unified statistical formulation of quantum and classical mechanics in a *-algebraic setting leads us to conclude that information itself is noncommutative in quantum mechanics. Specifically we refer here to an observer's…
In this study, I argue that the future is not open if quantum mechanics is complete. An open future means that the value observed when measuring a physical quantity in the future is not determined. At first glance, quantum mechanics seems…
This Chapter develops a realist information-theoretic interpretation of the nonclassical features of quantum probabilities. On this view, what is fundamental in the transition from classical to quantum physics is the recognition that…
Although time is one of our most intuitive physical concepts, its understanding at the fundamental level is still an open question in physics. For instance, time in quantum mechanics and general relativity are two distinct and incompatible…
Epistemological consequences of quantum nonlocality (entanglement) are discussed under the assumption of a universally valid Schr\"odinger equation in the absence of hidden variables. This leads inevitably to a {\it many-minds…
Mechanics can be founded on a principle relating the uncertainty delta-q in the trajectory of an observable particle to its motion relative to the observer. From this principle, p.delta-q=const., p being the q-conjugated momentum,…
Measurement uncertainty is an important topic in the undergraduate laboratory curriculum. Previous research on student thinking about experimental measurement uncertainty has focused primarily on introductory-level students' procedural…
In a causal world the direction of the time arrow dictates how past causal events in a variable $X$ produce future effects in $Y$. $X$ is said to cause an effect in $Y$, if the predictability (uncertainty) about the future states of $Y$…
The generalized uncertainty connection between the fluctuations of a quantum observable and its temporal derivative is derived in this study, we demonstrate that the product of an observable's uncertainties and its time derivative is…
We propose a new framework of quantum field theory for an arbitrary observer in curved spacetime, defined in the spacetime region in which each point can both receive a signal from and send a signal to the observer. Multiple motivations for…
I introduce a framework to distinguish two domains of physics - the manifest (i.e. the directly observable empirical records in terms of manifest configurations) and the non-manifest domain of physics (i.e. the things that the manifest…
In this paper we propose that cosmological time is a quantum observable that does not commute with other quantum operators essential for the definition of cosmological states, notably the cosmological constant. This is inspired by…
The hidden-variable question is whether or not various properties --- randomness or correlation, for example --- that are observed in the outcomes of an experiment can be explained via introduction of extra (hidden) variables which are…
Quantum mechanics rests on the assumption that time is a classical variable. As such, classical time is assumed to be measurable with infinite accuracy. However, all real clocks are subject to quantum fluctuations, which leads to the…