Related papers: Against Pointillisme about Mechanics
The basic premise of Quantum Mechanics, embodied in the doctrine of wave-particle duality, assigns both, a particle and a wave structure to the physical entities. The classical laws describing the motion of a particle and the evolution of a…
In this contribution, we suggest the approach that geometric concepts ought to be defined in terms of physical operations involving quantum matter. In this way it is expected that some (presumably nocive) idealizations lying deep within the…
We argue that space-time properties are not absolute with respect to the used frame of reference as is to be expected according to ideas of relativity of space and time properties by Berkley - Leibnitz - Mach- Poincar\'{e}. From this point…
We show that classical particle mechanics (Hamiltonian and Lagrangian consistent with relativistic electromagnetism) can be derived from three fundamental assumptions: infinite reducibility, deterministic and reversible evolution, and…
In quantum gravity there is no notion of absolute time. Like all other quantities in the theory, the notion of time has to be introduced "relationally", by studying the behavior of some physical quantities in terms of others chosen as a…
The canonical formalism of general relativity affords a particularly interesting characterisation of the infamous hole argument. It also provides a natural formalism in which to relate the hole argument to the problem of time in classical…
In a recent preprint [1] Jeffrey Bub presents a discussion of neo-Bohrian interpretations of quantum mechanics, and also of von Neumann's work on infinite tensor products [2]. He rightfully writes that this work provides a theoretical…
We consider Hilbert's problem of the axioms of Physics at a qualitative or conceptual level. This issue is more pressing than ever as we seek to understand how both General Relativity and quantum theory could emerge from some deeper theory…
Attempts to quantize general relativity encounter an odd problem. The Hamiltonian that normally generates time evolution vanishes in the case of general relativity as a result of diffeomorphism invariance. The theory seems to be saying that…
The Hamiltonian defines the dynamical properties of the universe. Evidence from particle physics shows that there is a different version of the Hamiltonian for each direction of time. As there is no physical basis for the universe to be…
Based on the model of a "soft" cellular space and deterministic quantum mechanics developed previously, the scattering of a free moving particle by structural units of the space -- superparticles -- is studied herein. The process of energy…
In this paper, we endeavour to show that from the noncommutative nature of spacetime one can deduce the concept of relativity in the sense that the velocity cannot be infinite as in the case of Galilean relativity.
The continuum of real numbers has served well as a model for physical space in mechanics and field theories. However it is a well-motivated and popular idea that at the fundamental Planck scale the combination of gravitational and quantum…
The developments of special relativity and quantum mechanics marked the beginning of the modern physics age. The former has taught us that while space and time are frame dependent notions, there is a quantity -- the space-time interval --…
On the basis of information theory, a new formalism of classical non-relativistic mechanics of a mass point is proposed. The particle trajectories of a general dynamical system defined on an (1+n)-dimensional smooth manifold are treated…
The notion of ``fundamental constant'' is heavily theory-laden. A natural, fairly precise formulation is possible in the context of the standard model (here defined to include gravity). Some fundamental constants have profound geometric…
The concept of velocity dependent mass, relativistic mass, is examined and is found to be inconsistent with the geometrical formulation of special relativity. This is not a novel result; however, many continue to use this concept and some…
Physics is formulated in terms of timeless classical mathematics. A formulation on the basis of intuitionist mathematics, built on time-evolving processes, would offer a perspective that is closer to our experience of physical reality.
The mathematical representation of the physical objects determines which mathematical branch will be applied during the physical analysis in the systems studied. The difference among non-quantum physics, like classic or relativistic…
There are several important philosophical problems to which quantum mechanics is often said to have made significant contributions: - Determinism: quantum theory has been taken to refute determinism; -Free Will: in turn, this is thought to…