English
Related papers

Related papers: Watching the Clocks: Interpreting the Page-Wootter…

200 papers

This paper is an exploration of the nuanced realm of reference frames within the framework of General Relativity. Our analysis exposes a violation of Earman's SP1 principle in scenarios involving fields that are dynamically uncoupled, a…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2024-10-18 Nicola Bamonti , Henrique Gomes

In general relativity, the causal structure between events is dynamical, but it is definite and observer-independent; events are point-like and the membership of an event A in the future or past light-cone of an event B is an…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2020-07-13 Philippe Allard Guérin , Časlav Brukner

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…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-09-28 Nicholas Harrigan , Terry Rudolph

Rovelli's relational interpretation of quantum mechanics tells us that the description of a system in the formalism of quantum mechanics is not an absolute, but it is relative to the observer itself. The interpretation goes further and…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-06-24 Pietro Dall'Olio , José A. Zapata

We argue about a conceptual approach to quantum formalism. Starting from philosophical conjectures (Platonism, Idealism and Realism) as basic ontic elements (namely: math world, data world, and state of matter), we will analyze the quantum…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Helen Lynn , Michele Caponigro

In standard quantum mechanics, reference frames are treated as abstract entities. We can think of them as idealized, infinite-mass subsystems which decouple from the rest of the system. In nature, however, all reference frames are realized…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-08-30 Viktor Zelezny

Viewing frames of reference as physical systems, subject to the same laws as the systems they describe, is central to the relational approach in physics. Under the assumption that quantum mechanics universally governs all physical entities,…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-04-22 Michael Suleymanov , Avishy Carmi , Eliahu Cohen

We present a theory of "quantum references", similar to lenses in classical functional programming, that allow to point to a subsystem of a larger quantum system, and to mutate/measure that part. Mutable classical variables, quantum…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2024-07-08 Dominique Unruh

Quantum reference frames provide a relational description of multipartite quantum systems in which physical states and observables are defined relative to quantum observers. Yet different observers can assign different entropies to the same…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-03-26 Anne-Catherine de la Hamette

A problem with an instructive description of measurement process for sufficiently separated entangled quantum systems is well known. More precise and crafty experiments together with new technological challenges raise questions about…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2010-05-11 Alexander Yu. Vlasov

In the literature on quantum reference frames, the internal (relative) properties of a system are defined as those which are preserved under an arbitrary change of reference frame. For a system of quantum spins, these are all properties…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2016-10-10 Jacques Pienaar

The relational interpretation of quantum mechanics (RQM) has received a growing interest since its first formulation in 1996. Usually presented as an interpretational layer over the usual quantum mechanics formalism, it appears as a…

In this work, we use real quaternions and the basic concept of the final speed of light in an attempt to enhance the standard description of special relativity. First, we demonstrate that it is possible to introduce a quaternion time domain…

General Physics · Physics 2018-01-11 Viktor Ariel

In this paper we analyze the definition of quantum superpositions within orthodox Quantum Mechanics (QM) and their relation to physical reality. We will begin by discussing how the metaphysical presuppositions imposed by Bohr on the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2015-02-19 Christian de Ronde

In the context of constrained quantum mechanics, reference systems are used to construct relational observables that are invariant under the action of the symmetry group. Upon measurement of a relational observable, the reference system…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2008-11-26 Florian Girelli , David Poulin

We consider fundamental limits on the detectable size of macroscopic quantum superpositions. We argue that a full quantum mechanical treatment of system plus measurement device is required, and that a (classical) reference frame for phase…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2017-11-27 M. Skotiniotis , W. Dür , P. Sekatski

We propose a formal framework for understanding and unifying the concept of observers across physics, computer science, philosophy, and related fields. Building on cybernetic feedback models, we introduce an operational definition of…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-01-08 Hatem Elshatlawy , Dean Rickles , Xerxes D. Arsiwalla

In this article, I argue that modern spacetime physics causes problems for a number of traditional accounts of modality, but also offers important new ideas about the connection between modal and non-modal features of reality. I suggest…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2025-07-29 Emily Adlam

We study the limitations for defining spatial and temporal intervals when the only available reference frame is a single composite quantum system, whose internal degrees of freedom serve as a temporal reference, a clock, and whose center of…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-01-27 Davide Mattei , Esteban Castro-Ruiz

We suggest solving the measurement problem by postulating the existence of a special future final boundary condition for the universe. Although this is an extension of the way boundary conditions are usually chosen (in terrestrial…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 Eyal Gruss