Quantum Theory as Symmetry Broken by Vitality
Abstract
I summarize a research program that aims to reconstruct quantum theory from a fundamental physical principle that, while a quantum system has no intrinsic hidden variables, it can be understood using a reference measurement. This program reduces the physical question of why the quantum formalism is empirically successful to the mathematical question of why complete sets of equiangular lines appear to exist in complex vector spaces when they do not exist in real ones. My primary goal is to clarify motivations, rather than to present a closed book of numbered theorems, and consequently the discussion is more in the manner of a colloquium than a PRL.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1907.02432,
title = {Quantum Theory as Symmetry Broken by Vitality},
author = {Blake C. Stacey},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.02432},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
32 pages, 1 figure; the tone and topic of a Chris Fuchs samizdat, but 1/100th the size; v6: new discussion of spectral property, section 5 streamlined