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  1. The Coalescence Approach to Inequivalent Representation: Pre-QM ∞ Parallels.Caspar Jacobs - 2023 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 74 (4):1069-1090.
    Ruetsche ([2011]) argues that the occurrence of unitarily inequivalent representations in quantum theories with infinitely many degrees of freedom poses a novel interpretational problem. According to Ruetsche, such theories compel us to reject the so-called ideal of pristine interpretation; she puts forward the ‘coalescence approach’ as an alternative. In this paper I offer a novel defence of the coalescence approach. The defence rests on the claim that the ideal of pristine interpretation already fails before one considers the peculiarities of QM∞: (...)
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  • Deduction and definability in infinite statistical systems.Benjamin H. Feintzeig - 2017 - Synthese 196 (5):1-31.
    Classical accounts of intertheoretic reduction involve two pieces: first, the new terms of the higher-level theory must be definable from the terms of the lower-level theory, and second, the claims of the higher-level theory must be deducible from the lower-level theory along with these definitions. The status of each of these pieces becomes controversial when the alleged reduction involves an infinite limit, as in statistical mechanics. Can one define features of or deduce the behavior of an infinite idealized system from (...)
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  • The Classical Limit as an Approximation.Benjamin H. Feintzeig - 2020 - Philosophy of Science 87 (4):612-639.
    I argue that it is possible to give an interpretation of the classical ℏ→0 limit of quantum mechanics that results in a partial explanation of the success of classical mechanics. The interpretation...
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  • The classical limit of a state on the Weyl algebra.Benjamin H. Feintzeig - unknown
    This paper considers states on the Weyl algebra of the canonical commutation relations over the phase space R^{2n}. We show that a state is regular iff its classical limit is a countably additive Borel probability measure on R^{2n}. It follows that one can "reduce" the state space of the Weyl algebra by altering the collection of quantum mechanical observables so that all states are ones whose classical limit is physical.
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  • Why Be regular?, part I.Benjamin Feintzeig, J. B. Le Manchak, Sarita Rosenstock & James Owen Weatherall - 2019 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 65 (C):122-132.
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  • Reductive Explanation and the Construction of Quantum Theories.Benjamin H. Feintzeig - 2022 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 73 (2):457-486.
    I argue that philosophical issues concerning reductive explanations help constrain the construction of quantum theories with appropriate state spaces. I illustrate this general proposal with two examples of restricting attention to physical states in quantum theories: regular states and symmetry-invariant states. 1Introduction2Background2.1 Physical states2.2 Reductive explanations3The Proposed ‘Correspondence Principle’4Example: Regularity5Example: Symmetry-Invariance6Conclusion: Heuristics and Discovery.
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  • Why be regular? Part II.Benjamin Feintzeig & James Owen Weatherall - 2019 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 65 (C):133-144.
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  • The Status of Scaling Limits as Approximations in Quantum Theories.Benjamin Feintzeig - unknown
    This paper attempts to make sense of a notion of ``approximation on certain scales'' in physical theories. I use this notion to understand the classical limit of ordinary quantum mechanics as a kind of scaling limit, showing that the mathematical tools of strict quantization allow one to make the notion of approximation precise. I then compare this example with the scaling limits involved in renormalization procedures for effective field theories. I argue that one does not yet have the mathematical tools (...)
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