Realism And Quantum Physics

Author : Lee Smolin
Publisher : Knopf Canada
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2019-04-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780345809124

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Einstein's Unfinished Revolution by Lee Smolin Pdf

A daring new vision of the quantum universe, and the scandals controversies, and questions that may illuminate our future--from Canada's leading mind on contemporary physics. Quantum physics is the golden child of modern science. It is the basis of our understanding of atoms, radiation, and so much else, from elementary particles and basic forces to the behaviour of materials. But for a century it has also been the problem child of science, plagued by intense disagreements between its intellectual giants, from Albert Einstein to Stephen Hawking, over the strange paradoxes and implications that seem like the stuff of fantasy. Whether it's Schrödinger's cat--a creature that is simultaneously dead and alive--or a belief that the world does not exist independently of our observations of it, quantum theory is what challenges our fundamental assumptions about our reality. In Einstein's Unfinished Revolution, globally renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin provocatively argues that the problems which have bedeviled quantum physics since its inception are unsolved for the simple reason that the theory is incomplete. There is more, waiting to be discovered. Our task--if we are to have simple answers to our simple questions about the universe we live in--must be to go beyond it to a description of the world on an atomic scale that makes sense. In this vibrant and accessible book, Smolin takes us on a journey through the basics of quantum physics, introducing the stories of the experiments and figures that have transformed the field, before wrestling with the puzzles and conundrums that they present. Along the way, he illuminates the existing theories about the quantum world that might solve these problems, guiding us toward his own vision that embraces common sense realism. If we are to have any hope of completing the revolution that Einstein began nearly a century ago, we must go beyond quantum mechanics as we know it to find a theory that will give us a complete description of nature. In Einstein's Unfinished Revolution, Lee Smolin brings us a step closer to resolving one of the greatest scientific controversies of our age.

Author : Evandro Agazzi
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2023-03-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9789004457546

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Realism and Quantum Physics by Evandro Agazzi Pdf

Author : Alastair Wilson
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2020-01-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780198846215

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The Nature of Contingency by Alastair Wilson Pdf

This book defends a radical new theory of contingency as a physical phenomenon. Drawing on the many-worlds approach to quantum theory and cutting-edge metaphysics and philosophy of science, it argues that quantum theories are best understood as telling us about the space of genuine possibilities, rather than as telling us solely about actuality. When quantum physics is taken seriously in the way first proposed by Hugh Everett III, it provides the resources for a new systematic metaphysical framework encompassing possibility, necessity, actuality, chance, counterfactuals, and a host of related modal notions. Rationalist metaphysicians argue that the metaphysics of modality is strictly prior to any scientific investigation; metaphysics establishes which worlds are possible, and physics merely checks which of these worlds is actual. Naturalistic metaphysicians respond that science may discover new possibilities and new impossibilities. This book's quantum theory of contingency takes naturalistic metaphysics one step further, allowing that science may discover what it is to be possible. As electromagnetism revealed the nature of light, as acoustics revealed the nature of sound, as statistical mechanics revealed the nature of heat, so quantum physics reveals the nature of contingency.

Author : Steven French,Juha Saatsi
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2020-02-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780192546562

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Scientific Realism and the Quantum by Steven French,Juha Saatsi Pdf

Quantum theory is widely regarded as one of the most successful theories in the history of science. It explains a hugely diverse array of phenomena and is a natural candidate for our best representation of the world at the level of 'fundamental' physics. But how can the world be the way quantum theory says it is? It is famously unclear what the world is like according to quantum physics, which presents a serious problem for the scientific realist who is committed to regarding our best theories as more or less true. The present volume canvasses a variety of responses to this problem, from restricting or revising realism in different ways to exploring entirely new directions in the lively debate surrounding realist interpretations of quantum physics. Some urge us to focus on new formulations of the theory itself, while others examine the status of scientific realism in the further context of quantum field theory. Each chapter is written by a renowned specialist in the field and is aimed at graduate students and researchers in both physics and the philosophy of science. Together they offer a range of illuminating new perspectives on this fundamental debate and exemplify the fruitful interaction between physics and philosophy.

Author : Arkady Plotnitsky
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 358 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2022-01-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030845780

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Reality Without Realism by Arkady Plotnitsky Pdf

This book presents quantum theory as a theory based on new relationships among matter, thought, and experimental technology, as against those previously found in physics, relationships that also redefine those between mathematics and physics in quantum theory. The argument of the book is based on its title concept, reality without realism (RWR), and in the corresponding view, the RWR view, of quantum theory. The book considers, from this perspective, the thinking of Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Dirac, with the aim of bringing together the philosophy and history of quantum theory. With quantum theory, the book argues, the architecture of thought in theoretical physics was radically changed by the irreducible role of experimental technology in the constitution of physical phenomena, accordingly, no longer defined independently by matter alone, as they were in classical physics or relativity. Or so it appeared. For, quantum theory, the book further argues, made us realize that experimental technology, beginning with that of our bodies, irreducibly shapes all physical phenomena, and thus makes us rethink the relationships among matter, thought, and technology in all of physics.

Author : Steven French,Juha Saatsi
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 335 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2020-02
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780198814979

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Scientific Realism and the Quantum by Steven French,Juha Saatsi Pdf

Quantum theory is widely regarded as one of the most successful theories in the history of science. It explains a hugely diverse array of phenomena and is a natural candidate for our best representation of the world at the level of 'fundamental' physics. But how can the world be the way quantum theory says it is? It is famously unclear what the world is like according to quantum physics, which presents a serious problem for the scientific realist who is committed to regarding our best theories as more or less true. The present volume canvasses a variety of responses to this problem, from restricting or revising realism in different ways to exploring entirely new directions in the lively debate surrounding realist interpretations of quantum physics. Some urge us to focus on new formulations of the theory itself, while others examine the status of scientific realism in the further context of quantum field theory. Each chapter is written by a renowned specialist in the field and is aimed at graduate students and researchers in both physics and the philosophy of science. Together they offer a range of illuminating new perspectives on this fundamental debate and exemplify the fruitful interaction between physics and philosophy.

Author : Christopher Norris
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2002-11-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781134595242

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Quantum Theory and the Flight from Realism by Christopher Norris Pdf

This book is a critical introduction to the long-standing debate concerning the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics and the problems it has posed for physicists and philosophers from Einstein to the present. Quantum theory has been a major infulence on postmodernism, and presents significant problems for realists. Keeping his own realist position in check, Christopher Norris subjects a wide range of key opponents and supporters of realism to a high and equal level of scrutiny. With a characteristic combination of rigour and intellectual generosity, he draws out the merits and weaknesses from opposing arguments. In a sequence of closely argued chapters, Norris examines the premises of orthodox quantum theory, as developed most influentially by Bohr and Heisenberg, and its impact on varous philosophical developments. These include the ideas developed by W.V Quine, Thomas Kuhn, Michael Dummett, Bas van Fraassen, and Hilary Puttnam. In each case, Norris argues, these thinkers have been influenced by the orthodox construal of quantum mechanics as requiring drastic revision of principles which had hitherto defined the very nature of scientific method, causal explanati and rational enquiry. Putting the case for a realist approach which adheres to well-tried scientific principles of causal reasoning and inference to the best explanation, Christopher Norris clarifies these debates to a non-specialist readership and scholars of philosophy, science studies and the philosophy of science alike. Quantum Theory and the Flight From Realism suggests that philosophical reflection can contribute to a better understanding of these crucial, current issues.

Author : Runsheng Tu
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2018-10-19
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781527519978

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Quantum Mechanics’ Return to Local Realism by Runsheng Tu Pdf

This book proposes a model of the light knot electronic structure and the theory of quantum inverse measurement, showing that diffraction experiments can be explained by directional quantization. It points out that there exists a logical loophole in the interpretation process of quantum entanglement, and proves that there is a paradox in the uncertainty relationship. As such, the book lays the foundation for the establishment of local-realism quantum mechanics and successfully establishes the quantum mechanics of localized realism and determinism is successfully established. It will appeal to university students, teachers, and scientists, as well as science lovers.

Author : Valia Allori
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2022-07-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030996420

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Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentality by Valia Allori Pdf

This edited collection provides new perspectives on some metaphysical questions arising in quantum mechanics. These questions have been long-standing and are of continued interest to researchers and graduate students working in physics, philosophy of physics, and metaphysics. It features contributions from a diverse set of researchers, ranging from senior scholars to junior academics, working in varied fields, from physics to philosophy of physics and metaphysics. The contributors reflect on issues about fundamentality (is quantum theory fundamental? If so, what is its fundamental ontology?), ontological dependence (how do ordinary objects exist even if they are not fundamental?), realism (what kind of realism is compatible with quantum theory?), indeterminacy (can the world itself exhibit ontological indeterminacy?). The book contains contributions from both physicists (including Nobel Prize winner Gerard 't Hooft), science communicators and philosophers.

Author : Matthias Egg
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2014-08-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783110383515

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Scientific Realism in Particle Physics by Matthias Egg Pdf

Particle physics studies highly complex processes which cannot be directly observed. Scientific realism claims that we are nevertheless warranted in believing that these processes really occur and that the objects involved in them really exist. This book defends a version of scientific realism, called causal realism, in the context of particle physics. The first part of the book introduces the central theses and arguments in the recent philosophical debate on scientific realism and discusses entity realism, which is the most important precursor of causal realism. It also argues against the view that the very debate on scientific realism is not worth pursuing at all. In the second part, causal realism is developed and the key distinction between two kinds of warrant for scientific claims is clarified. This distinction proves its usefulness in a case study analyzing the discovery of the neutrino. It is also shown to be effective against an influential kind of pessimism, according to which even our best present theories are likely to be replaced some day by radically distinct alternatives. The final part discusses some specific challenges posed to realism by quantum physics, such as non-locality, delayed choice and the absence of particles in relativistic quantum theories.

Author : F. Selleri
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 470 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2013-06-29
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781468487749

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Quantum Mechanics Versus Local Realism by F. Selleri Pdf

If you have two small objects, one here on Earth and the other on the planet Pluto, what would you say of the following statement: No modification of the properties of the object on the earth can take place as a consequence of an interaction of the distant object with a third body also located on Pluto? The opinion that the previous statement is correct is very natural, but modern quantum theory implies that it must be wrong in certain cases. Consider in fact two arbitrary objects separated by such a large distance that they are unable to exert any important mutual influence. It is possible to show rigorously that a measurable physical quantity exists, with a value more than 40% different from the value theoretically predicted by quantum mechanics. Necessarily then, either space is largely an illusion of our senses and it does not exist objectively, or information can be sent from the future to the past, or ... something important has to be changed in modern physics. This is the essence of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox. A paradox is an argument that derives absurd conclusions by valid deduction from acceptable premises. In the case of the EPR paradox the absurd conclusion is that Bell's observable d should have two different values d = 2.Ji and The "acceptable premises" are the following: 1. All the empirical predictions of the existing quantum theory are correct.

Author : Giuliano Preparata
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 88 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Science
ISBN : 9812381767

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An Introduction to a Realistic Quantum Physics by Giuliano Preparata Pdf

Dr. Preparata (d. 2000), a professor at an unspecified Italian university, was among the minority of theoretical physicists challenging the standard model of quantum field theory with a "more realistic" quark model of the elementary particles of matter. He argues his case in five lecture-type essays. An appendix overviews the underlying math and formal logic. Lacks an index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author : Douglas L. Hemmick,Asif M. Shakur
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 104 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2011-10-02
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783642234682

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Bell's Theorem and Quantum Realism by Douglas L. Hemmick,Asif M. Shakur Pdf

Quantum theory presents a strange picture of the world, offering no real account of physical properties apart from observation. Neils Bohr felt that this reflected a core truth of nature: "There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract mathematical description." Among the most significant developments since Bohr’s day has been the theorem of John S. Bell. It is important to consider whether Bell’s analysis supports such a denial of microrealism. In this book, we evaluate the situation in terms of an early work of Erwin Schrödinger. Doing so, we see how Bell’s theorem is conceptually related to the Conway and Kochen Free Will theorem and also to all the major anti-realism efforts. It is easy to show that none of these analyses imply the impossibility of objective realism. We find that Schrödinger’s work leads to the derivation of a new series of theoretical proofs and potential experiments, each involving “entanglement,” the link between particles in some quantum systems. .

Author : Bernard d'Espagnat,Hervé Zwirn
Publisher : Springer
Page : 299 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2017-05-08
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783319554204

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The Quantum World by Bernard d'Espagnat,Hervé Zwirn Pdf

In this largely nontechnical book, eminent physicists and philosophers address the philosophical impact of recent advances in quantum physics. These are shown to shed new light on profound questions about realism, determinism, causality or locality. The participants contribute in the spirit of an open and honest discussion, reminiscent of the time when science and philosophy were inseparable. After the editors’ introduction, the next chapter reveals the strangeness of quantum mechanics and the subsequent discussions examine our notion of reality. The spotlight is then turned to the topic of decoherence. Bohm’s theory is critically examined in two chapters, and the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics is likewise described and discussed. The penultimate chapter presents a proposal for resolving the measurement problem, and finally the topic of loop quantum gravity is presented by one of its founding fathers, Carlo Rovelli. The original presentations and discussions on which this volume is based took place under the auspices of the French “Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques”. The book will appeal to everybody interested in knowing how our description of the world is impacted by the results of the most powerful and successful theory that physicists have ever built.

Author : Michael Epperson,Elias Zafiris
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 441 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2013-06-20
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780739180334

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Foundations of Relational Realism by Michael Epperson,Elias Zafiris Pdf

If there is a central conceptual framework that has reliably borne the weight of modern physics as it ascends into the twenty-first century, it is the framework of quantum mechanics. Because of its enduring stability in experimental application, physics has today reached heights that not only inspire wonder, but arguably exceed the limits of intuitive vision, if not intuitive comprehension. For many physicists and philosophers, however, the currently fashionable tendency toward exotic interpretation of the theoretical formalism is recognized not as a mark of ascent for the tower of physics, but rather an indicator of sway—one that must be dampened rather than encouraged if practical progress is to continue. In this unique two-part volume, designed to be comprehensible to both specialists and non-specialists, the authors chart out a pathway forward by identifying the central deficiency in most interpretations of quantum mechanics: That in its conventional, metrical depiction of extension, inherited from the Enlightenment, objects are characterized as fundamental to relations—i.e., such that relations presuppose objects but objects do not presuppose relations. The authors, by contrast, argue that quantum mechanics exemplifies the fact that physical extensiveness is fundamentally topological rather than metrical, with its proper logico-mathematical framework being category theoretic rather than set theoretic. By this thesis, extensiveness fundamentally entails not only relations of objects, but also relations of relations. Thus, the fundamental quanta of quantum physics are properly defined as units of logico-physical relation rather than merely units of physical relata as is the current convention. Objects are always understood as relata, and likewise relations are always understood objectively. In this way, objects and relations are coherently defined as mutually implicative. The conventional notion of a history as “a story about fundamental objects” is thereby reversed, such that the classical “objects” become the story by which we understand physical systems that are fundamentally histories of quantum events. These are just a few of the novel critical claims explored in this volume—claims whose exemplification in quantum mechanics will, the authors argue, serve more broadly as foundational principles for the philosophy of nature as it evolves through the twenty-first century and beyond.