Related papers: Phenomenological quantum mechanics II: deducing th…
If the block universe view is correct, the future and the past have similar status and one would expect physical theories to involve final as well as initial boundary conditions. A plausible consistency condition between the initial and…
We propose a 2-categorical formalism for describing classical information, quantum systems, and their interactions, based on the principle that classical information can be encoded as correlations between quantum systems. Applying this in…
Quantum mechanics states that a particle emitted at point (x_1,t_1) and detected at point (x_2,t_2) does not travel along a definite path between the two points. This conclusion arises essentially from the analysis of the two-slit…
Conventional quantum mechanics with a complex Hilbert space and the Born Rule is derived from five axioms describing properties of probability distributions for the outcome of measurements. Axioms I,II,III are common to quantum mechanics…
Quantum theory's irreducible empirical core is a probability calculus. While it presupposes the events to which (and on the basis of which) it serves to assign probabilities, and therefore cannot account for their occurrence, it has to be…
The question of what ontological message (if any) is encoded in the formalism of contemporary physics is, to say the least, controversial. The reasons for this state of affairs are psychological and neurobiological. The processes by which…
Familiar formulations of classical and quantum mechanics are shown to follow from a general theory of mechanics based on pure states with an intrinsic probability structure. This theory is developed to the stage where theorems from quantum…
For an arbitrary preparation, quantum mechanical descriptions refer to the complementary contexts set by incompatible measurements. We argue that an arbitrary preparation, therefore, should be described with respect to such a context by its…
Quantum theory predicts probabilities as well as relative phases between different alternatives of the system. A unified description of both probabilities and phases comes through a generalisation of the notion of a density matrix for…
In this work we attempt to confront the orthodox widespread claim present in the foundational literature of Quantum Mechanics (QM) according to which 'superpositions are never actually observed in the lab'. In order to do so, we begin by…
The new orthodoxy of quantum mechanics (QM) based on the decoherence approach requires many-worlds as an essential ingredient for logical consistency, and one may wonder what status to give to all these "other worlds". Here we advocate that…
The paper has heuristic character. The conceptual frame, based on the assumption of quantum uncertainty only, has been formerly introduced in two papers [S. Tosto, Il Nuovo Cimento B, vol. 111, n.2, 1996 and S. Tosto, Il Nuovo Cimento D,…
It is proposed a possible new approach of quantum measurements (QMS), disconnected of the traditional interpretation of uncertainty relations and independent of any appeal to the strange idea of collapse (reduction) of wave functions. The…
'Tis said, to know others is to be learned, to know oneself, wise - I demonstrate that it could be more fundamental than knowing the rest of nature, by applying classical computational principles and engineering hindsight to derive and…
I show that quantum theory is the only probabilistic framework that permits arbitrary processes to be emulated by sequences of local measurements. This supports the view that, contrary to conventional wisdom, measurement should not be…
We present a reformulation of quantum mechanics in terms of probability measures and functions on a general classical sample space and in particular in terms of probability densities and functions on phase space. The basis of our proceeding…
I introduce a framework to distinguish two domains of physics - the manifest (i.e. the directly observable empirical records in terms of manifest configurations) and the non-manifest domain of physics (i.e. the things that the manifest…
These are the notes written for the talk given at the workshop Rethinking foundations of physics 2016. In section 2, a derivation of the the quantum formalism starting from propositional calculus (quantum logic) is reviewed, pointing out…
A review is given of recent work aimed at constructing a quantum theory of cosmology in which all observables refer to information measurable by observers inside the universe. At the classical level the algebra of observables should be…
The problem of measurement in quantum mechanics is reanalyzed within a general, strictly probabilistic framework (without reduction postulate). Based on a novel comprehensive definition of measurement the natural emergence of objective…