Related papers: Revisiting Quantum Mysteries
A pedagogical introduction is given to the quantum mechanics of closed systems, most generally the universe as a whole. Quantum mechanics aims at predicting the probabilities of alternative coarse-grained time histories of a closed system.…
The classical limit of quantum mechanics is investigated, by focusing on the study of the center of mass of a many-body system where each particle is described by quantum mechanics. We study how, in the limit when the number of particles…
In this paper, we discuss content and context for quantum properties. We give some examples of why quantum properties are problematic: they depend on the context in a non-trivial way. We then connect this difficulty with properties to the…
Physics is a model of nature able to both describe and predict the results of measurements made with respect to reference systems. These reference systems, in turn, are themselves physical and thus subject to the laws of physics. The…
In this article we propose a solution to the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. We point out that the measurement problem can be traced to an a priori notion of classicality in the formulation of quantum mechanics. If this notion of…
The Weltanschauung emerging from quantum theory clashes profoundly with our classical concepts. Quantum characteristics like superposition, entanglement, wave-particle duality, nonlocality, contextuality are difficult to reconcile with our…
Since its origins, Quantum mechanics has presented problems with the concept of individuality. It is argued that quantum particles do not have individuality, and so, one can speak about "entities without identity". On the contrary, we claim…
We discuss a point, which from time to time has been doubted in the literature: all symmetries, such as those induced by the energy and momentum conservation laws, hold in quantum physics not just "on average", as is sometimes claimed, but…
It is shown that quantum systems of identical particles can be treated as if they were different when they are in well differentiated states. This simplifying assumption allows the consideration of quantum systems isolated from the rest of…
A resolution of the quantum measurement problem(s) using the consistent histories interpretation yields in a rather natural way a restriction on what an observer can know about a quantum system, one that is also consistent with some results…
The vacuum is the lowest energy state of a field in a certain region of space. This definition implies that no particles can be present in the vacuum state. In classical physics, the only features of vacuum are those of its geometry. For…
The ontology proposed in this paper is aimed at demonstrating that it is possible to understand the counter-intuitive predictions of quantum mechanics while still retaining much of the framework underlying classical physics, the implication…
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…
Does information play a significant role in the foundations of physics? Information is the abstraction that allows us to refer to the states of systems when we choose to ignore the systems themselves. This is only possible in very…
A composite quantum system has properties that are incompatible with every property of its parts. The existence of such global properties incompatible with all local properties constitutes what I call "mereological holism"--the distinctive…
The possibility of a quantum system to exhibit properties that are akin to both the classically held notions of being a particle and a wave, is one of the most intriguing aspects of the quantum description of nature. These aspects have been…
The quantum mechanics of a simple mechanical system is considered. A group of gears can serve as a model for several different systems such as an artifically constructed nanomechanical device or a group of ring molecules. It is shown that…
The question of how irreversibility can emerge as a generic phenomena when the underlying mechanical theory is reversible has been a long-standing fundamental problem for both classical and quantum mechanics. We describe a mechanism for the…
Monogamy is an intrinsic feature of quantum correlations that gives rise to several interesting quantum characteristics which are not amenable to classical explanations. The monogamy property imposes physical restrictions on unconditional…
The properties which give quantum mechanics its unique character - unitarity, complementarity, non-commutativity, uncertainty, nonlocality - derive from the algebraic structure of Hermitian operators acting on the wavefunction in complex…