Related papers: No-Go Theorems: What Are They Good For?
We use a simple relational framework to develop the key notions and results on hidden variables and non-locality. The extensive literature on these topics in the foundations of quantum mechanics is couched in terms of probabilistic models,…
It is shown that in all odd dimensional Chern-Simons theories states in which the torsion is non zero (but it can approach smoothly to zero outside suitable regions) do exist. Some possible observational effects related to neutrino…
An open question of fundamental importance in thermodynamics is how to describe the fluctuations of work for quantum coherent processes. In the standard approach, based on a projective energy measurement both at the beginning and at the end…
The relational approach to quantum states asserts that the physical description of quantum systems is always relative to something or someone. In relational quantum mechanics (RQM) it is relative to other quantum systems, in the…
Although general relativity (GR) passes all present experimental tests with flying colors, it remains important to study alternative theories of gravity for several theoretical and phenomenological reasons that we recall in these lecture…
In this article, we will review Noether's Theorems and their application in General Relativity. We will present Noether's Theorems in their original form and restate them as they are usually applied to physics. Some basic equations of…
A novel no-go theorem is presented which sets a bound upon the extent to which '\Psi-epistemic' interpretations of quantum theory are able to explain the overlap between non-orthogonal quantum states in terms of an experimenter's ignorance…
Measurement outcomes provide data for a physical theory. Unless they are objective they support no objective scientific knowledge. So the outcome of a quantum measurement must be an objective physical fact. But recent arguments purport to…
This article presents an operationalized solution to the mind-body problem which relies on rigorously defined theoretical reasoning rather than philosophical argument. We identify a specific operation which is a necessary property of all…
Measurements play a crucial role in doing physics: Their results provide the basis on which we adopt or reject physical theories. In this note, we examine the effect of subjecting measurements themselves to our experience. We require that…
Studying the general structure of the noncommutative (NC) local groups, we prove a no-go theorem for NC gauge theories. According to this theorem, the closure condition of the gauge algebra implies that: 1) the local NC $u(n)$ {\it algebra}…
The effects of the experiment itself upon the obtained results and, especially, the influence of a large number of experiments are extensively discussed in the literature. We show that the important factor that stands at the basis of these…
It is shown that if physical space time were truly compact there would only be of the order of one solutions to the classical field equations with a weighting to be explained. But that would not allow any peculiar choice of initial…
This paper provides theorems aimed at shedding light on issues in the foundations of quantum mechanics. These theorems can be used to propose new interpretations to the theory, or to better understand, evaluate and improve current…
We discuss some seemingly paradoxical yet valid effects of quantum physics in information processing. Firstly, we argue that the act of ``doing nothing'' on part of an entangled quantum system is a highly non-trivial operation and that it…
Macro-realism is the position that certain "macroscopic" observables must always possess definite values: e.g. the table is in some definite position, even if we don't know what that is precisely. The traditional understanding is that by…
We identify "proper quantum computation" with computational processes that cannot be efficiently simulated on a classical computer. For optical quantum computation, we establish "no-go" theorems for classes of quantum optical experiments…
A simple, though rarely considered, thought experiment on relativistic rotation is described in which internal inconsistencies in the theory of relativity seem to arise. These apparent inconsistencies are resolved by appropriate insight…
This is a survey of vanishing and positivity theorems for Hodge modules, and their recent applications to birational and complex geometry, expanding on my lecture at the 2015 AMS Summer Institute.
There are several important philosophical problems to which quantum mechanics is often said to have made significant contributions: - Determinism: quantum theory has been taken to refute determinism; -Free Will: in turn, this is thought to…