Related papers: Naive Realism about Operators
Scientific realism in classical (i.e. pre-quantum) physics has remained compatible with the naive realism of everyday thinking on the whole; whereas it has proven impossible to find any consistent way to visualize the world underlying…
The Bohr and von Neumann views on the measurement process in quantum mechanics have been interpreted for a long time in somewhat controversial terms, often leading to misconceptions. On the basis of some textual analysis, I would like to…
The Bayesian approach to quantum mechanics of Caves, Fuchs and Schack is presented. Its conjunction of realism about physics along with anti-realism about much of the structure of quantum theory is elaborated; and the position defended from…
To understand the foundations of quantum mechanics, we have to think carefully about how theoretical concepts are rooted in -- and limited by -- the nature of experience, as Bohr attempted to show. Geometrical pictures of physical phenomena…
We explain why, in a configuration space that is multiply connected, i.e., whose fundamental group is nontrivial, there are several quantum theories, corresponding to different choices of topological factors. We do this in the context of…
Motivated by the question what it is that makes quantum mechanics a holistic theory (if so), I try to define for general physical theories what we mean by `holism'. For this purpose I propose an epistemological criterion to decide whether…
Quantum mechanics is an outstandingly successful description of nature, underpinning fields from biology through chemistry to physics. At its heart is the quantum wavefunction, the central tool for describing quantum systems. Yet it is…
The relational approach to quantum states asserts that the physical description of quantum systems is always relative to something or someone. In relational quantum mechanics (RQM) it is relative to other quantum systems, in the…
Quantum mechanics is derived from the principle that the universe contain as much variety as possible, in the sense of maximizing the distinctiveness of each subsystem. The quantum state of a microscopic system is defined to correspond to…
The author's opinion on the interpretation of quantum mechanics is further elucidated. Not only may quantum mechanics be a description of the sub-microscopic world that is profoundly different from what is often asserted, particularly…
Physical interpretations of the time-symmetric formulation of quantum mechanics, due to Aharonov, Bergmann, and Lebowitz are discussed in terms of weak values. The most direct, yet somewhat naive, interpretation uses the time-symmetric…
The contemporary controversy about the fundamental obscurity in quantum mechanics keeps on the old one about the aim of science, which was between the founders of the quantum theory. The orthodox quantum mechanics could be created only at…
In Bohmian mechanics particles follow continuous trajectories, hence 2-time position correlations are well defined. Nevertheless, Bohmian mechanics predicts the violation of Bell inequalities. Motivated by this fact we investigate position…
Geometric (Schrodinger) quantization of nonrelativistic mechanics with respect to different reference frames is considered. In classical nonrelativistic mechanics, a reference frame is represented by a connection on a configuration space…
It is generally accepted that quantum mechanics entails a revision of the classical propositional calculus as a consequence of its physical content. However, the universal claim according to which a new quantum logic is indispensable in…
The Schrodinger equation is incomplete, inherently unable to explain the collapse of the wavefunction caused by measurement; a fundamental issue known as the quantum measurement problem. Quantum mechanics is generally constrained by the…
Analysing Quantum Measurement requires analysing the physics of amplification since amplification of phenomena from one scale to another scale is essential to measurement. There still remains the task of working this into an axiomatic…
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…
Quantum gravity aims to describe gravity in quantum mechanical terms. How exactly this needs to be done remains an open question. Various proposals have been put on the table, such as canonical quantum gravity, loop quantum gravity, string…
The purpose of the paper is to study the foundations of the main axioms of Quantum Mechanics. From a general study of the mathematical properties of the models used in Physics to represent systems, we prove that the states of a system can…