This is a list of this week’s papers on quantum foundations published in the various journals or uploaded to the preprint servers such as arxiv.org and PhilSci Archive.
on 2015-8-14 1:42am GMT
Authors: Igor Pikovski, Magdalena Zych, Fabio Costa, Caslav Brukner
Recent work has shown that relativistic time dilation results in correlations between a particle’s internal and external degrees of freedom, leading to decoherence of the latter. In this note, we briefly summarize the results and address the comments and concerns that have been raised towards these findings. In addition to brief replies to the comments, we provide a pedagogical discussion of some of the underlying principles of the work. This note serves to clarify some of the counterintuitive aspects arising when the two theories are jointly considered.
on 2015-8-14 1:42am GMT
Authors: Marius Krumm
This thesis investigates the connection between quantum theory, thermodynamics and information theory. Theories with structure similar to that of quantum theory are considered, mathematically described by the framework of “Generalized Probabilistic Theories”. For these theories, a thought experiment by von Neumann is adapted to obtain a natural thermodynamic entropy definition, following a proposal by J. Barrett. Mathematical properties of this entropy are compared to physical consequences of the thought experiment. The validity of the second law of thermodynamics is investigated. In that context, observables and projective measurements are generalized to prove an entropy increase for projective measurements of ensembles. Information-theoretically motivated definitions of the entropy are compared to the entropy from the thermodynamic thought experiment. The conditions for the thermodynamic entropy to be well-defined are considered in greater detail. Several further properties of the theories under consideration (e.g. whether there is higher order interference, Pfister’s state discrimination principle) and their relation to entropy are investigated.
Reconstruction and Reinvention in Quantum Theory
Latest Results for Foundations of Physics
on 2015-8-14 12:00am GMT
Abstract
I consider the fact that there are a number of interesting ways to ‘reconstruct’ quantum theory, and suggest that, very broadly speaking, a form of ‘instrumentalism’ makes good sense of the situation. This view runs against some common wisdom, which dismisses instrumentalism as ‘cheap’. In contrast, I consider how an instrumentalist might think about the reconstruction theorems, and, having made a distinction between ‘reconstructing’ quantum theory and ‘reinventing’ quantum theory, I suggest that there is an adequate (not ‘cheap’) instrumentalist approach to the theory (and to these theorems) that invokes both.
Non-classical conditional probability and the quantum no-cloning theorem
PhilSci-Archive: No conditions. Results ordered -Date Deposited.
on 2015-8-13 11:22pm GMT
Niestegge, Gerd (2015) Non-classical conditional probability and the quantum no-cloning theorem. [Published Article]
An argument for psi-ontology in terms of protective measurements
PhilSci-Archive: No conditions. Results ordered -Date Deposited.
on 2015-8-12 8:19pm GMT
Gao, Shan (2015) An argument for psi-ontology in terms of protective measurements. [Forthcoming in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics]
A Fundamental Form of the Schrodinger Equation
Latest Results for Foundations of Physics
on 2015-8-12 12:00am GMT
Abstract
We propose a first order equation from which the Schrodinger equation can be derived. Matrices that obey certain properties are introduced for this purpose. We start by constructing the solutions of this equation in one dimension and solve the problem of electron scattering from a step potential. We show that the sum of the spin up and down, reflection and transmission coefficients, is equal to the quantum mechanical results for this problem. Furthermore, we present a three dimensional (3D) version of the equation which can be used to derive the Schrodinger equation in 3D.
The de Broglie Wave as Evidence of a Deeper Wave Structure
PhilSci-Archive: No conditions. Results ordered -Date Deposited.
on 2015-8-09 5:57pm GMT
Shanahan, Daniel (2015) The de Broglie Wave as Evidence of a Deeper Wave Structure. [Preprint]
