Against (unitary) interpretation (of quantum mechanics): removing the metaphysical load

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2409.17061v1
• Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2024 16:19:44 GMT
• Title: Against (unitary) interpretation (of quantum mechanics): removing the metaphysical load
• Authors: Marek Żukowski, Marcin Markiewicz,
• Abstract summary: We show that "unitary quantum mechanics", which according to its followers leads to some interesting paradoxes, is an interpretation of quantum mechanics. The root of "unitary" vs. operational discrepancy is that the latter treats the measurement process as irreversible.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Physics is a science. Thus a statement can be treated as its "law" only if it agrees with our experience of the World/Nature (this includes our experiments). Statements which are fundamentally untestable are hypotheses which belong to metaphysics. Such are all interpretations of quantum mechanics, which attribute to its mathematical tools meanings that are beyond experimentally observable events, while not affecting quantum predictions of these events. We show that "unitary quantum mechanics", which according to its followers leads to some interesting paradoxes, is an interpretation of quantum mechanics, based on hypotheses that are untestable. The (operational) quantum mechanics, which is the one tested in every quantum experiment is free of these paradoxes. The root of "unitary" vs. operational discrepancy is that the latter treats the measurement process as irreversible, and in the different answers to the question of what is described by the state vector. The clearest manifestation of this is the insistence of the supporters of "unitary quantum mechanics" that measurements can be "in principle undone". "Unitarists" also try to avoid the postmeasurement state vector collapse at any cost, including no attempt to describe it, but still accept the Born rule as a calculational tool. Ipso facto, the hypothesis of "in principle possibility of undoing measurements" belongs to metaphysics, as it is untestable. In the case of predictions of factual events in the laboratories the ``unitary" quantum mechanics agrees with the operational one. It shares this property with all interpretations of quantum mechanics which do not affect its predictions. Metaphysics begins when one requests that quantum mechanics should be more than a mathematically formulated theory which predicts future observable events of a certain class basing on events observed earlier (of the same class).

Related papers

• A decision-theoretic approach to dealing with uncertainty in quantum mechanics [42.166654559515244]
  We provide a decision-theoretic framework for dealing with uncertainty in quantum mechanics. We show that measurements play the role of acts with an uncertain outcome. We discuss the mathematical implications of our findings.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-03-26T14:53:06Z)
• Fundamental work costs of preparation and erasure in the presence of quantum side information [6.759148939470332]
  We introduce a resource-theoretic framework of quantum thermodynamics in the presence of quantum side information.<n>We derive the one-shot work costs of preparing, as well as erasing, a thermodynamic system whose coupling with the demon's mind is described by a bipartite quantum state.<n>We present a macroscopic second law of thermodynamics in the presence of quantum side information, in terms of a conditional version of the Helmholtz free energy.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-03-12T03:02:03Z)
• Einstein's 1927 gedanken experiment: how to complete it and measure the collapse time of a spatially spread photon [55.2480439325792]
  Einstein discussed a gedanken experiment involving a single photon diffracted at an aperture and impinging on a screen.<n>He devised the example to support De Broglie's hypothesis of the pilot wave, and his own ideas on the incompleteness of the description of physical reality provided by Quantum Mechanics.<n> Partial realizations of Einstein's example have been performed, but the complete experiment has not been attempted (for good practical reasons) yet.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-03-11T18:10:12Z)
• Semiclassical gravity phenomenology under the causal-conditional quantum measurement prescription II: Heisenberg picture and apparent optical entanglement [13.04737397490371]
  In quantum gravity theory, a state-dependent gravitational potential introduces nonlinearity into the state evolution. The formalism for understanding the continuous quantum measurement process on the quantum state has been previously discussed using the Schr"odinger picture. In this work, an equivalent formalism using the Heisenberg picture is developed and applied to the analysis of two optomechanical experiment protocols.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-11-08T14:07:18Z)
• Which features of quantum physics are not fundamentally quantum but are due to indeterminism? [0.0]
  We argue that most of the features, problems, and paradoxes attributed to quantum physics have a clear classical analogue. What really characterizes quantum physics boils down only to phenomena that involve $hbar$, i.e., incompatible observables.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-09-16T18:00:01Z)
• Is Planckian discreteness observable in cosmology? [47.03992469282679]
  A Planck scale inflationary era produces the scale invariant spectrum of inhomogeneities with very small tensor-to-scalar ratio of perturbations.<n>Here we evoke the possibility that some of the major puzzles in cosmology would have an explanation rooted in quantum gravity.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-05-21T06:53:37Z)
• What is "quantum" about quantum gravity? [0.0]
  We argue that if both the equivalence principle and quantum mechanics continue to survive experimental tests, that this favors epistemic'' interpretations of quantum mechanics.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-05-13T21:19:50Z)
• A computational test of quantum contextuality, and even simpler proofs of quantumness [43.25018099464869]
  We show that an arbitrary contextuality game can be compiled into an operational "test of contextuality" involving a single quantum device. Our work can be seen as using cryptography to enforce spatial separation within subsystems of a single quantum device.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-05-10T19:30:23Z)
• The physics and metaphysics of the conceptuality interpretation of quantum mechanics [0.0]
  It has been argued that the difficulty in understanding quantum theory is our failed attempt to force onto it a wrong conceptual scheme.<n>Many thinkers have suggested that we must surrender to the fact that our physical world is one of immanent powers and potencies.<n>However, if on the one hand a potentiality puts the accent on the processes of change, responsible for the incessant shifts between actual and potential properties, on the other hand it does not tell what these changes are all about.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-10-14T10:00:49Z)
• Understanding and Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics [0.65268245109828]
  De Regt's contextual theory of understanding argues that recognizing qualitatively characteristic consequences of a theory T without performing exact calculations is a criterion for scientific understanding. If the task of understanding quantum mechanics has been finished already, there would be a conflict between the contextual theory of understanding of quantum mechanics and interpretations of quantum mechanics.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-08-25T10:59:30Z)
• Two Quantum Entangled Cheshire Cats [14.618082583488812]
  In the original thought experiment of the Quantum Cheshire Cat, the physical properties of the cat (state) can be decoupled from its quantum entities. Here, we conceive a new thought experiment that exploits quantum entanglement with weak (value) measurement.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-03-30T01:02:29Z)
• Is there a finite complete set of monotones in any quantum resource theory? [39.58317527488534]
  We show that there does not exist a finite set of resource monotones which completely determines all state transformations. We show that totally ordered theories allow for free transformations between all pure states.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-12-05T18:28:36Z)
• Schr\"odinger cat states of a 16-microgram mechanical oscillator [54.35850218188371]
  The superposition principle is one of the most fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. Here we demonstrate the preparation of a mechanical resonator with an effective mass of 16.2 micrograms in Schr"odinger cat states of motion. We show control over the size and phase of the superposition and investigate the decoherence dynamics of these states.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2022-11-01T13:29:44Z)
• Quantum realism: axiomatization and quantification [77.34726150561087]
  We build an axiomatization for quantum realism -- a notion of realism compatible with quantum theory. We explicitly construct some classes of entropic quantifiers that are shown to satisfy almost all of the proposed axioms.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-10-10T18:08:42Z)
• Testing quantum theory with thought experiments [4.847980206213335]
  How should one model systems that include agents who are themselves using quantum theory? We give a state-of-the-art overview on quantum thought experiments involving observers.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-06-09T18:08:23Z)
• Demystifying Quantum Mechanics [0.0]
  We discuss the concepts of physical reality imposed by quantum mechanics, the role of the observer, prediction limits, a definition of collapse, and how to deal with correlated states. The discussion is carried out within the framework of accepting that there is in fact nothing important missing, rather we are just restricted by the limitations imposed by quantum mechanics.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-06-03T22:32:11Z)
• Quantum indistinguishability through exchangeable desirable gambles [69.62715388742298]
  Two particles are identical if all their intrinsic properties, such as spin and charge, are the same. Quantum mechanics is seen as a normative and algorithmic theory guiding an agent to assess her subjective beliefs represented as (coherent) sets of gambles. We show how sets of exchangeable observables (gambles) may be updated after a measurement and discuss the issue of defining entanglement for indistinguishable particle systems.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-05-10T13:11:59Z)
• Why the Future Cannot be Open in the Quantum World [0.0]
  An open future means that the value observed when measuring a physical quantity in the future is not determined. Many interpretations regard quantum mechanics as deterministic. I argue that, although quantum mechanics cannot predict the future with certainty, the quantum mechanical world must be deterministic.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-01-06T07:06:32Z)
• Impossibility of creating a superposition of unknown quantum states [16.467540842571328]
  We show that the existence of a protocol that superposes two unknown pure states with nonzero probability leads to violation of other no-go theorems. Such a protocol can be used to perform certain state discrimination and cloning tasks that are forbidden in quantum theory.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-11-04T13:25:42Z)
• Operational Resource Theory of Imaginarity [48.7576911714538]
  We show that quantum states are easier to create and manipulate if they only have real elements. As an application, we show that imaginarity plays a crucial role for state discrimination.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-07-29T14:03:38Z)
• Is the standard quantum mechanics a completely nondeterministic theory? [0.0]
  It is argued that although quantum theory isn't an absolutely deterministic theory, it is partially deterministic. The argument is based on the conceptual meaning of determinism and by means of some well-known phenomena in the quantum world.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-07-04T14:48:13Z)
• On the quantum description of the early universe [0.0]
  The study of the early era of the universe involves the ideal terrain to analyze the interface between General Relativity and Quantum physics. It is also an area in which we have a large number of observational data to test our theoretical ideas. This article will orbit around these ideas and summarizes how it is that today, from recent works, we are in a position to try to challenge them.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2020-07-02T23:38:52Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.