相关论文: On the Time Orientation of Probabilistic Theories
A generalization of fluctuation theorems in stochastic processes is proposed. The new theorem is written in terms of posterior probabilities, which are introduced via the Bayes theorem. In usual fluctuation theorems, a forward path and its…
Irreversibility is usually captured by a comparison between the process that happens and a corresponding "reverse process". In the last decades, this comparison has been extensively studied through fluctuation relations. Here we revisit…
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…
The symmetry of quantum theory under time reversal has long been a subject of controversy because the transition probabilities given by Born's rule do not apply backward in time. Here, we resolve this problem within a rigorous operational…
The theory of probability and the quantum theory, the one mathematical and the other physical, are related in that each admits a number of very different interpretations. It has been proposed that the conceptual problems of the quantum…
It is brought forward that viable theories of the physical world that have no variable at all that can play the role of time, do not exist; some notion of time is one of the very first ingredients a candidate theory should possess. Almost…
The probabilistic predictions of quantum theory are conventionally obtained from a special probabilistic axiom. But that is unnecessary because all the practical consequences of such predictions follow from the remaining, non-probabilistic,…
No quantitative theory describing all physical phenomena can be made if any arbitrary standard spacetime structure is assumed. This statement is a consequence of transforming the Peano arithmetic axioms into sentences with a physical…
A key issue in the handling of temporal data is the treatment of persistence; in most approaches it consists in inferring defeasible confusions by extrapolating from the actual knowledge of the history of the world; we propose here a…
This paper relates both to the metaphysics of probability and to the physics of time asymmetry. Using the formalism of decoherent histories, it investigates whether intuitions about intrinsic time directedness that are often associated with…
Huw Price has proposed an argument that suggests a time-symmetric ontology for quantum theory must necessarily be retrocausal, i.e. it must involve influences that travel backwards in time. One of Price's assumptions is that the quantum…
It is argued that there is a sensible way to define conditional probabilities in quantum mechanics, assuming only Bayes's theorem and standard quantum theory. These probabilities are equivalent to the ``weak measurement'' predictions due to…
Spacetime manifolds that are not time orientable play a key role in a gravitational explanation of quantum theory. Such manifolds allow topology change, but also have fascinating additional properties such as net charge from source-free…
Physicists are increasingly beginning to take seriously the possibility of laws outside the traditional time-evolution paradigm; yet our understanding of determinism is still predicated on a forwards time-evolution picture, making it…
It is notorious that quantum mechanics cannot predict well-defined values for all physical quantities. Less well-known, however, is the fact that quantum mechanics is unable to furnish -- without additional assumptions -- probabilistic…
In a recent article under the above title (but without the question mark) Henry Stapp presented arguments which lead him to conclude that under suitable conditions ``the truth of a statement that refers only to phenomena confined to an…
It is proved that in non-relativistic quantum mechanics (without spin) the transition probability may be described in terms of particle paths, every path having a (positive) probability. This leads to a stochastic hidden variables theory…
Contrary to the customary thought prevailing for long, the time reversibility associated with beam-to-beam collisions does not really exist. Related facts and consequences are presented. The discussion, though involving simple mathematics…
"Ever since the advent of modern quantum mechanics in the late 1920's, the idea has been prevalent that the classical laws of probability cease, in some sense, to be valid in the new theory. [...] The primary object of this presentation is…
Special relativity is most naturally formulated as a theory of space-time geometry, but within the space-time framework probability apears to be at best an epistemic notion - a matter of what can be known, not of the status of events in…