Related papers: Operational Theories as Structural Realism
This paper offers a brief introduction to the framework of "general probabilistic theories", otherwise known as the "convex-operational" approach the foundations of quantum mechanics. Broadly speaking, the goal of research in this vein is…
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…
In this work we advance a generalization of quantum computational logics capable of dealing with some important examples of quantum algorithms. We outline an algebraic axiomatization of these structures.
The debate on the nature of quantum probabilities in relation to Quantum Non Locality has elevated Quantum Mechanics to the level of an "Operational Epistemic Theory". In such context the quantum superposition principle has an extraneous…
The epistemological interpretation of quantum mechanics is still in an unacceptable status. This becomes obvious if looking on the variety of interpretations currently under discussion. However, the physical community together with…
An attempt is made to formulate quantum mechanics (QM) in physical rather than in mathematical terms. It is argued that the appropriate conceptual framework for QM is "contextual objectivity", which includes an objective definition of the…
More often than not, recently popular structuralist interpretations of physical theories leave the central concept of a structure insufficiently precisified. The incipient causal sets approach to quantum gravity offers a paradigmatic case…
According to scientific realism, science gives us an approximately true description of what the world is like. But what does it mean? In this chapter, we focus on the ontological and metaphysical aspects of this discussion. That is, we are…
The quantum reference frames program is based on the idea that reference frames should be treated as quantum physical systems. In this work, we combine these insights with the emphasis on operationality, understood as refraining from…
Studying the extent to which realism is compatible with quantum mechanics teaches us something about the quantum mechanical universe, regardless of the validity of such realistic assumptions. It has also recently been appreciated that these…
In a previous preprint (quant-ph/0012122) we introduced a ``contextual objectivity" formulation of quantum mechanics (QM). A central feature of this approach is to define the quantum state in physical rather than in mathematical terms, in…
Quantum theory describes our universe incredibly successfully. To our classically-inclined brains, however, it is a bizarre description that requires a re-imagining of what fundamental reality, or "ontology", could look like. This thesis…
We develop an algebraic frame for the simultaneous treatment of actual and possible properties of quantum systems. We show that, in spite of the fact that the language is enriched with the addition of a modal operator to the orthomodular…
"Quantum mechanics must be regarded as open systems. On one hand, this is due to the fact that, like in classical physics, any realistic system is subjected to a coupling to an uncontrollable environment which influences it in a…
Our starting point is a particular `canvas' aimed to `draw' theories of physics, which has symmetric monoidal categories as its mathematical backbone. In this paper we consider the conceptual foundations for this canvas, and how these can…
Motivated by the question what it is that makes quantum mechanics a holistic theory (if so), I try to define for general physical theories what we mean by `holism'. For this purpose I propose an epistemological criterion to decide whether…
In the work it is shown that the principles "the objective local theory" and corollaries of the standard quantum mechanics are not in such antagonistic inconsistency as it is usually supposed. In the framework of algebraic approach, the…
Our notions of what is physically 'real' have long been based on the idea that the real is what is immediately apprehended, that is the local or observable, the physically tangible, though there has always been an alternative philosophical…
In addition to the important role of contextuality in foundations of quantum theory, this intrinsically quantum property has been identified as a potential resource for quantum advantage in different tasks. It is thus of fundamental…
We present a heuristic derivation of Born's rule and unitary transforms in Quantum Mechanics, from a simple set of axioms built upon a physical phenomenology of quantization. This approach naturally leads to the usual quantum formalism,…