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Quantum mechanics from classical statistics

Quantum Physics 2015-05-13 v2 Quantum Gases High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

Quantum mechanics can emerge from classical statistics. A typical quantum system describes an isolated subsystem of a classical statistical ensemble with infinitely many classical states. The state of this subsystem can be characterized by only a few probabilistic observables. Their expectation values define a density matrix if they obey a "purity constraint". Then all the usual laws of quantum mechanics follow, including Heisenberg's uncertainty relation, entanglement and a violation of Bell's inequalities. No concepts beyond classical statistics are needed for quantum physics - the differences are only apparent and result from the particularities of those classical statistical systems which admit a quantum mechanical description. Born's rule for quantum mechanical probabilities follows from the probability concept for a classical statistical ensemble. In particular, we show how the non-commuting properties of quantum operators are associated to the use of conditional probabilities within the classical system, and how a unitary time evolution reflects the isolation of the subsystem. As an illustration, we discuss a classical statistical implementation of a quantum computer.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0906.4919,
  title  = {Quantum mechanics from classical statistics},
  author = {C. Wetterich},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.4919},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

33 pages, improvement of presentation

R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:18:15.416Z