Related papers: No-Go Theorems: What Are They Good For?
Despite various parallels between quantum states and ordinary information, quantum no-go-theorems have convinced many that there is no realistic framework that might underly quantum theory, no reality that quantum states can represent…
We lay the groundwork for a formal framework that studies scientific theories and can serve as a unified foundation for the different theories within physics. We define a scientific theory as a set of verifiable statements, assertions that…
The Hodge-de Rham Theorem is introduced and discussed. This result has implications for the general study of several partial differential equations. Some propositions which have applications to the proof of this theorem are used to study…
Agreement theorems are no-go results about rational disagreement: if two agents start from a common prior and their posterior beliefs are common knowledge, they cannot assign different probabilities to the same event. Standard treatments of…
We consider the implications of some simple assumptions about the nature of the quantum theory of gravity which are plausible for a class of possible theories I have been attempting to construct. The simple assumptions turn out to have…
There are strong restrictions on the possible representations and in general on the matter content of gauge theories formulated on noncommutative Moyal spaces, termed as noncommutative gauge theory no-go theorem. According to the no-go…
Equivalence principles played a central role in the development of general relativity. Furthermore, they have provided operative procedures for testing the validity of general relativity, or constraining competing theories of gravitation.…
The notorious Wigner's friend thought experiment (and modifications thereof) has in recent years received renewed interest especially due to new arguments that force us to question some of the fundamental assumptions of quantum theory. In…
General Relativity is the modern theory of gravitation. It has replaced the newtonian theory in the description of the gravitational phenomena. In spite of the remarkable success of the General Relativity Theory, the newtonian gravitational…
We reflect on the nature, role and limits of non-empirical theory assessment in fundamental physics, focusing in particular on quantum gravity. We argue for the usefulness and, to some extent, necessity of non-empirical theory assessment,…
Usually the 'hidden variables' of Bell's theorem are supposed to describe the pair of Bell particles. Here a semantic shift is proposed, namely to attach the hidden variables to a stochastic medium or field in which the particles move. It…
Neutrino oscillation data had been a big surprise to theorists, and indeed they have ongoing impact on theory. I review what the impact has been, and what measurements will have critical impact on theory in the future.
In the paper "Quantum theory cannot consistently describe the use of itself" by D. Frauchiger and R. Renner an atempt is made at proving a "no-go theorem" that states that either quantum theory cannot be universally applied, even to…
Recent no-go theorems on interpretations of quantum theory featuring an assumption of `Absoluteness of Observed Events' (AOE) are shown to have an unexpectedly strong corollary: one cannot reject AOE and at the same time assume that the…
We consider a general dynamical, spherically symmetric background in the cubic subclass of Horndeski theory and obtain the quadratic action for the perturbations using the DPSV approach. We analyse the stability conditions for high-energy…
The Kochen-Specker theorem is one of the fundamental no-go theorems in quantum theory. It has far-reaching consequences for all attempts trying to give an interpretation of the quantum formalism. In this work, we examine the hypotheses…
It has been pointed out that non-singular cosmological solutions in second-order scalar-tensor theories generically suffer from gradient instabilities. We extend this no-go result to second-order gravitational theories with an arbitrary…
The nondistributivity of compound quantum mechanical propositions leads to a theorem that rules out the possibility of microscopic deterministic hidden variables, the Logical No-Go Theorem. We observe that there appear in fact two distinct…
Recent experiments have shown that certain fluid-mechanical systems, namely oil droplets bouncing on oil films, can mimic a wide range of quantum phenomena, including double-slit interference, quantization of angular momentum and Zeeman…
We briefly review the basics of electric-magnetic duality symmetry and their geometric interpretation in the M-theory context. Then we recall some no-go theorems that prevent a simple extension of the duality symmetry to non-Abelian gauge…