Related papers: Quantum Confusions, Cleared Up (or so I hope)
This paper presents a new `partitional' approach to understanding or interpreting standard quantum mechanics (QM). The thesis is that the mathematics (not the physics) of QM is the Hilbert space version of the math of partitions on a set…
One hundred years after the creation of quantum theory, there is no consensus on the kind of reality that is described by the theory. Here, I attribute the lack of progress to the prevailing interpretative methodology, which invariably…
Realistic quantum mechanics based on complex probability theory is shown to have a frequency interpretation, to coexist with Bell's theorem, to be linear, to include wavefunctions which are expansions in eigenfunctions of Hermitian…
In this short review I present my personal reflections on Zeilinger-Brukner information interpretation of quantum mechanics (QM). In general, this interpretation is very attractive for me. However, its rigid coupling to the notion of…
I show how quantum mechanics, like the theory of relativity, can be understood as a 'principle theory' in Einstein's sense, and I use this notion to explore the approach to the problem of interpretation developed in my book Interpreting the…
Quantum mechanics---the theory describing the fundamental workings of nature---is famously counterintuitive: it predicts that a particle can be in two places at the same time, and that two remote particles can be inextricably and…
This essay considers ways that recent uses of computers in mathematics challenge contemporary views on the nature of mathematical understanding. It also puts these challenges in a historical perspective and offers speculation as to a…
During many years since the birth of quantum mechanics, instrumentalist interpretations prevailed: the meaning of the theory was expressed in terms of measurements results. But in the last decades, several attempts to interpret it from a…
Discussion of the necessity to use the constructive mathematics as the formalism of quantum theory for systems with many particles.
Quantum computing exposes the brilliance of quantum mechanics through computer science and, as such, gives oneself a marvelous and exhilarating journey to go through. This article leads along that journey with a historical and current…
Invited contribution to the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics (2nd edition), providing an overview over some main ideas and results in quantum cosmology. Key points: Canonical quantisation of homogeneous, isotropic cosmology; discussion…
We bring together two topics (quantum mechanics and time passage) with the goal of clarifying questions about each. Specifically, we claim that the formalism of quantum mechanics provides an answer to the question: "What is time passage?".
Alongside the development of quantum algorithms and quantum complexity theory in recent years, quantum techniques have also proved instrumental in obtaining results in classical (non-quantum) areas. In this paper we survey these results and…
We look at the fundamental use of complex numbers in Quantum Mechanics (QM). A review of some of the most popular reasons given in the literature to support the necessity of the complex formalism, We add some insight by invoking others.…
A recent proof, couched in the symbolic language of modal logic, shows that a well-defined formulation of the question posed in the title is answered affirmatively. In a paper with the same title Unruh has tried in various ways to translate…
All the concepts and principles necessary to understand quantum mechanics on an initial level are given in a form suitable for the non-expert. The concepts explained include visualizing the wave function, wave-particle duality, the…
The ontology emerging from quantum field theory and the results following from Bell's theorems allowed the development of an intuitive picture of the microscopic world described by quantum mechanics, that is, we can say that we understand…
"Ever since the advent of modern quantum mechanics in the late 1920's, the idea has been prevalent that the classical laws of probability cease, in some sense, to be valid in the new theory. [...] The primary object of this presentation is…
The concept and the formalization of the arrival time in quantum mechanics are discussed. Different approaches based on trajectories, quantization rules, time operators, phase space techniques, renewal equations or operational procedures…
The generalization of the imaginary unit is examined within the instances of the complex quantum mechanics ($\mathbb C$QM), and of the quaternionic quantum mechanics ($\mathbb H$QM) as well. Whereas the complex theory describes…