Related papers: Reversibility and Irreversibility within the Quant…
Time-reversal had always been assumed to be a symmetry of physics at the fundamental level. In this paper we will explore the violations of time-reversal symmetry at the fundamental level and the consequences on thermodynamic systems.…
Because of the non-locality of quantum entanglement, realist approaches to completing quantum mechanics have implications for our conception of space. Quantum gravity also is expected to predict phenomena in which the locality of classical…
We provide a dynamical proof of the second law of thermodynamics, along the lines of an argument of Penrose and Gibbs, making crucial use of the upper semicontinuity of the mean entropy proved by Robinson and Ruelle and Lanford and…
This paper concerns with the time-reversal characteristics of intrinsic normal diffusion in quantum systems. Time-reversible properties are quantified by the time-reversal test; the system evolved in the forward direction for a certain…
Irreversibility implies a preferred flow of time, yet special relativity denies the existence of a preferred clock. This tension has long obstructed the formulation of a relativistic master equation: standard Markovian approximations either…
Quantum mechanics has maintained over the years the reputation of being "the most obscure theory." It works perfectly well, but nobody seems to know why. It has been argued that the difficulty in understanding quantum theory is our failed…
After a review of the arrows of time, we describe the possibilities of a time-asymmetry in quantum theory. Whereas Hilbert space quantum mechanics is time-symmetric, the rigged Hilbert space formulation, which arose from Dirac's bra-ket…
A dynamical system is said to be reversible if, given an output, the input can always be recovered in a well-posed manner. Nevertheless, we argue that reversible systems that have a time-reversal symmetry, such as the Nonlinear…
In this essay, we argue that the problem of time should not be regarded as an issue to be resolved within the prevailing framework for studying quantum gravity, but rather as an indication that there is an issue within the framework itself.…
The issue of how time reversible microscopic dynamics gives rise to macroscopic irreversible processes has been a recurrent issue in Physics since the time of Boltzmann whose ideas shaped, and essentially resolved, such an apparent…
Within the context of quantum teleportation, a proposed intuitive model to explain bipartite entanglement describes the scheme as being the same qubit of information evolving along and against the flow of time of an external observer. We…
The emergent nature of quantum mechanics is shown to follow from a precise correspondence with the classical theory of irreversible thermodynamics.
Quantum mechanics in the Rigged Hilbert Space formulation describes quasistationary phenomena mathematically rigorously in terms of Gamow vectors. We show that these vectors exhibit microphysical irreversibility, related to an intrinsic…
A quantum mechanical theory is proposed which abandons an external parameter ``time'' in favor of a self-adjoint operator on a Hilbert space whose elements represent measurement events rather than system states. The standard quantum…
The Halting problem of a quantum computer is considered. It is shown that if halting of a quantum computer takes place the associated dynamics is described by an irreversible operator.
Similarities between the non-deterministic nature of quantum theory and the unpredictable patterns of human cognition and decision making have been observed and commented on many times since the invention of Quantum Mechanics in the first…
The nature of time in quantum mechanics is closely related to the use of a complex, rather than say real, Hilbert space. This becomes particularly clear when considering quantum field theory in time dependent backgrounds, such as in…
This paper discusses questions concerning the foundations of quantum mechanics (entanglement, wave collapse, irreversibility) with reference to the issues raised during a Minisymposium held in Helsinki, 1.6-3.6 in 1992, where A Shimony, A…
We give a quantum version of the Jarzynski relation between the distribution of work done over a certain time-interval on a system and the difference of equilibrium free energies. The main new ingredient is the identification of work…
It is argued that setting isolated systems as primary scope of field theory and looking at particles as derived entities, the problem of an objective anchorage of quantum mechanics can be solved and irreversibility acquires a fundamental…