Related papers: The foundations of statistical mechanics from enta…
A "minimal" generalization of Quantum Mechanics is proposed, where the Lagrangian or the action functional is a mapping from the (classical) states of a system to the Lie algebra of a general compact Lie group, and the wave function takes…
Quantum theory makes the most accurate empirical predictions and yet it lacks simple, comprehensible physical principles from which the theory can be uniquely derived. A broad class of probabilistic theories exist which all share some…
Time-symmetric cosmological theories, in which the initial and final states are arranged to have similar features or are independently fixed, have been quite extensively discussed in the literature. However, a more general and perhaps more…
It has previously been suggested that small subsystems of closed quantum systems thermalize under some assumptions; however, this has been rigorously shown so far only for systems with very weak interaction between subsystems. In this work,…
Quantum mechanics and classical statistical mechanics are two physical theories that share several analogies in their mathematical apparatus and physical foundations. In particular, classical statistical mechanics is hallmarked by the…
We attempt to contribute some novel points of view to the "foundations of quantum mechanics", using mathematical tools from "quantum probability theory" (such as the theory of operator algebras). We first introduce an abstract algebraic…
We address the problem of the foundation of generalized ensembles in statistical physics. The approach is based on Boltzmann's concept of orthodes. These are the statistical ensembles that satisfy the heat theorem, according to which the…
Understanding the core content of quantum mechanics requires us to disentangle the hidden logical relationships between the postulates of this theory. Here we show that the mathematical structure of quantum measurements, the formula for…
The present paper studies a large class of temperature dependent probability distributions and shows that entropy and energy can be defined in such a way that these probability distributions are the equilibrium states of a generalized…
Chapter 3 of S. Lloyd's 1988 Ph.D. thesis, `Black Holes, Demons, and the Loss of Coherence: How complex systems get information and what they do with it,' supervisor Heinz Pagels. Reformulates statistical mechanics in terms of pure states…
A non-relativistic quantum mechanical theory is proposed that describes the universe as a continuum of worlds whose mutual interference gives rise to quantum phenomena. A logical framework is introduced to properly deal with propositions…
Quantum mechanics is nonlocal. Classical mechanics is local. Consequently classical mechanics can not explain all quantum phenomena. Conversely, it is cumbersome to use quantum mechanics to describe classical phenomena. Not only are the…
In this paper, we investigate the connection between Classical and Quantum Mechanics by dividing Quantum Theory in two parts: - General Quantum Axiomatics (a system is described by a state in a Hilbert space, observables are self-adjoint…
This study shows that the generalized Boltzmann distribution is the only distribution mathematically consistent with thermodynamics when the system is described by an ensemble of a certain mathematical form. This mathematical form is very…
We investigate operational probabilistic theories where the pure states of every system are the vertices of a simplex. A special case of such theories is that of classical theories, i.e. simplicial theories whose pure states are jointly…
We show that when a quantum system is coupled to an environment in a mean field way, then its effective dynamics is governed by a unitary group with a time-dependent Hamiltonian. The time-dependent modification of the bare system…
Quantum statistics originate from the physics of state preparation. It is therefore wrong to think of quantum states as fundamental. In fact, quantum states are merely summaries of dynamical processes that randomize the properties of the…
The aim of this work is to show that particle mechanics, both classical and quantum, Hamiltonian and Lagrangian, can be derived from few simple physical assumptions. Assuming deterministic and reversible time evolution will give us a…
Masanes, Galley and M\"uller [1] argue that the measurement postulates of non-relativistic quantum mechanics follow from the structural postulates together with an assumption they call the "possibility of state estimation". Their argument…
We consider conditions under which an isolated quantum system approaches a microcanonical equilibrium state. A key component is the eigenstate thermalisation hypothesis, which proposes that all energy eigenstates appear thermal. We…