Related papers: Counterfactual reasoning in time-symmetric quantum…
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…
A number of issues related to measurement show that self-consistency is lacking in quantum mechanics as this theory has been generally understood. Each issue is presented as a point in this paper. Each point can be resolved by incorporating…
A correlation measure relating to measured and unmeasured local quantities in quantum mechanics is introduced, and is then applied to assess the locality implications for Bell/CHSH and similar set-ups. This leads to some interesting…
Counterfactual reasoning and contextuality is defined and critically evaluated with regard to its nonempirical content. To this end, a uniqueness property of states, explosion views and link observables are introduced. If only a single…
In this paper we discuss and analyse the idea of trying to see (non-relativistic) quantum mechanics as a ``space-time statistical mechanics'', by using the classical statistical mechanical method on objective microscopic space-time…
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…
A quantum mechanical theory with time asymmetry intrinsic to states (or observables) features the concept of an initial time of the state and thus a preparation time of the physical system represented by the state. This special time is…
In consistent history quantum theory, a description of the time development of a quantum system requires choosing a framework or consistent family, and then calculating probabilities for the different histories which it contains. It is…
Quantum self-interference enables the counterfactual transmission of information, whereby the transmitted bits involve no particles traveling through the channel. In this work, we show how counterfactuality can be realized even when the…
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…
In the present article we use the quantum formalism to describe the process of choice under rational ignorance. We consider as a basic task a question or an issue where the only answers are 0 and 1. We show that under rational ignorance the…
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…
The predictions that quantum theory makes about the outcomes of measurements are generally probabilistic. This has raised the question whether quantum theory can be considered complete, or whether there could exist alternative theories that…
Incompatibility between conjugate variables and complementary pictures comes in two kinds, exclusive of one another. The first kind is unconditional, and the second conditional on quantum's indivisibility. We employ this distinction to…
In many applications, it is important to be able to explain the decisions of machine learning systems. An increasingly popular approach has been to seek to provide \emph{counterfactual instance explanations}. These specify close possible…
Counterfactual reasoning, a cornerstone of human cognition and decision-making, is often seen as the 'holy grail' of causal learning, with applications ranging from interpreting machine learning models to promoting algorithmic fairness.…
Can quantum theory be applied on all scales? While there are many arguments for the universality of quantum theory, this question remains a subject of debate. It is unknown how far the existence of macroscopic irreversibility can be derived…
Since quantum mechanics (QM) was formulated, many voices have claimed this to be the basis of free will in the human beings. Basically, they argue that free will is possible because there is an ontological indeterminism in the natural laws,…
Measurement incompatibility describes two or more quantum measurements whose expected joint outcome on a given system cannot be defined. This purely non-classical phenomenon provides a necessary ingredient in many quantum information tasks…
We argue that (1) our perception of time through change and (2) the gap between reality and our observation of it are at the heart of both quantum mechanics and the dynamical mechanism of physical systems. We suggest that the origin of…