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The problem of indistinguishable particles

In James T. Cushing, C. F. Delany & Gary M. Gutting (eds.), Science and Reality: Recent Work in the Philosophy of Science. University of Notre Dame Press (1984)

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  1. Scientific Theories, Models and the Semantic Approach.Krause Décio & Bueno Otávio - 2007 - Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology 11 (2):187-201.
    According to the semantic view, a theory is characterized by a class of models. In this paper, we examine critically some of the assumptions that underlie this approach. First, we recall that models are models of something. Thus we cannot leave completely aside the axiomatization of the theories under consideration, nor can we ignore the metamathematics used to elaborate these models, for changes in the metamathematics often impose restrictions on the resulting models. Second, based on a parallel between van Fraassen’s (...)
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  • Discerning Fermions.Simon Saunders & F. A. Muller - 2008 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59 (3):499 - 548.
    We demonstrate that the quantum-mechanical description of composite physical systems of an arbitrary number of similar fermions in all their admissible states, mixed or pure, for all finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, is not in conflict with Leibniz's Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles (PII). We discern the fermions by means of physically meaningful, permutation-invariant categorical relations, i.e. relations independent of the quantum-mechanical probabilities. If, indeed, probabilistic relations are permitted as well, we argue that similar bosons can also be discerned in all (...)
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  • Exclusion principle and the identity of indiscernibles: A response to Margenau's argument.Michela Massimi - 2001 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52 (2):303--30.
    This paper concerns the question of whether Pauli's Exclusion Principle (EP) vindicates the contingent truth of Leibniz's Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles (PII) for fermions as H. Weyl first suggested with the nomenclature ‘Pauli–Leibniz principle’. This claim has been challenged by a time-honoured argument, originally due to H. Margenau and further articulated and champione by other authors. According to this argument, the Exclusion Principle—far from vindicating Leibniz's principle—would refute it, since the same reduced state, viz. an improper mixture, can (...)
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  • Logical aspects of quantum (non-)individuality.Décio Krause - 2010 - Foundations of Science 15 (1):79-94.
    In this paper I consider some logical and mathematical aspects of the discussion of the identity and individuality of quantum entities. I shall point out that for some aspects of the discussion, the logical basis cannot be put aside; on the contrary, it leads us to unavoidable conclusions which may have consequences in how we articulate certain concepts related to quantum theory. Behind the discussion, there is a general argument which suggests the possibility of a metaphysics of non-individuals, based on (...)
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  • Individuation in Quantum Mechanics and Space-Time.Gregg Jaeger - 2010 - Foundations of Physics 40 (9-10):1396-1409.
    Two physical approaches—as distinct, under the classification of Mittelstaedt, from formal approaches—to the problem of individuation of quantum objects are considered, one formulated in spatiotemporal terms and one in quantum mechanical terms. The spatiotemporal approach itself has two forms: one attributed to Einstein and based on the ontology of space-time points, and the other proposed by Howard and based on intersections of world lines. The quantum mechanical approach is also provided here in two forms, one based on interference and another (...)
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  • Identical particles in quantum mechanics revisited.Robert C. Hilborn & Candice L. Yuca - 2002 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 53 (3):355-389.
    The treatment of identical particles in quantum mechanics rests on two (related) principles: the spin-statistics connection and the Symmetrization Postulate. In light of recent theories (such as q-deformed commutators) that allow for ‘small’ violations of the spin-statistics connection and the Symmetrization Postulate, we revisit the issue of how quantum mechanics deals with identical particles and how it supports or fails to support various philosophical stances concerning individuality. As a consequence of the expanded possibilities for quantum statistics, we argue that permutation (...)
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  • Why the principle of the identity of indiscernibles is not contingently true either.Steven French - 1989 - Synthese 78 (2):141 - 166.
    Faced with strong arguments to the effect that Leibniz''sPrinciple of the Identity of Indiscernibles (PII) is not a necessary truth, many supporters of the Principle have staged a strategic retreat to the claim that it is contingently true in this, the actual, world. The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of the various forms of PII in both classical and quantum physics, and it is concluded that this latter view is at best doubtful, at worst, simply wrong.
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  • Remarks on the Theory of Quasi-sets.Steven French & Décio Krause - 2010 - Studia Logica 95 (1-2):101 - 124.
    Quasi-set theory has been proposed as a means of handling collections of indiscernible objects. Although the most direct application of the theory is quantum physics, it can be seen per se as a non-classical logic (a non-reflexive logic). In this paper we revise and correct some aspects of quasi-set theory as presented in [12], so as to avoid some misunderstandings and possible misinterpretations about the results achieved by the theory. Some further ideas with regard to quantum field theory are also (...)
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  • Quantum physics and the identity of indiscernibles.Steven French & Michael Redhead - 1988 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 39 (2):233-246.
    Department of History and Philosophy of Science. University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RH This paper is concerned with the question of whether atomic particles of the same species, i. e. with the same intrinsic state-independent properties of mass, spin, electric charge, etc, violate the Leibnizian Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles, in the sense that, while there is more than one of them, their state-dependent properties may also all be the same. The answer depends on what exactly (...)
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  • Individuality, supervenience and bell's theorem.Steven French - 1989 - Philosophical Studies 55 (1):1-22.
    Some recent work in the philosophy of quantum mechanics has suggested that quantum systems can be thought of as non-separable and therefore non-individual, in some sense, in Bell and E.P.R. type situations. This suggestion is set in the context of previous work regarding the individuality of quantal particles and it is argued that such entities can be considered as individuals if their non-classical statistical correlations are understood in terms of non-supervenient relations holding between them. We conclude that such relations are (...)
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  • Quantum statistics, identical particles and correlations.Dennis Dieks - 1990 - Synthese 82 (1):127 - 155.
    It is argued that the symmetry and anti-symmetry of the wave functions of systems consisting of identical particles have nothing to do with the observational indistinguishability of these particles. Rather, a much stronger conceptual indistinguishability is at the bottom of the symmetry requirements. This can be used to argue further, in analogy to old arguments of De Broglie and Schrödinger, that the reality described by quantum mechanics has a wave-like rather than particle-like structure. The question of whether quantum statistics alone (...)
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  • Sobre uma fundamentação não reflexiva da mecânica quântica.Newton Carneiro Affonso da Costa, Décio Krause, Jonas Rafael Becker Arenhart & Jaison Schinaider - 2012 - Scientiae Studia 10 (1):71-104.
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  • Counting the Particles: Entity and Identity in the Philosophy of Physics.Francesco Berto - 2017 - Metaphysica 18 (1):69-89.
    I would like to attack a certain view: The view that the concept of identity can fail to apply to some things although, for some positive integer n, we have n of them. The idea of entities without self-identity is seriously entertained in the philosophy of quantum mechanics. It is so pervasive that it has been labelled the Received View. I introduce the Received View in Section 1. In Section 2 I explain what I mean by entity, and I argue (...)
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  • Quantum Structure in Cognition: Human Language as a Boson Gas of Entangled Words.Diederik Aerts & Lester Beltran - 2020 - Foundations of Science 25 (3):755-802.
    We model a piece of text of human language telling a story by means of the quantum structure describing a Bose gas in a state close to a Bose–Einstein condensate near absolute zero temperature. For this we introduce energy levels for the words (concepts) used in the story and we also introduce the new notion of ‘cogniton’ as the quantum of human thought. Words (concepts) are then cognitons in different energy states as it is the case for photons in different (...)
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  • Quantum Structure in Cognition: Human Language as a Boson Gas of Entangled Words.Diederik Aerts & Lester Beltran - 2020 - Foundations of Science 25 (3):755-802.
    We model a piece of text of human language telling a story by means of the quantum structure describing a Bose gas in a state close to a Bose–Einstein condensate near absolute zero temperature. For this we introduce energy levels for the words used in the story and we also introduce the new notion of ‘cogniton’ as the quantum of human thought. Words are then cognitons in different energy states as it is the case for photons in different energy states, (...)
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  • Brazilian Studies in Philosophy and History of Science: An Account of Recent Works.Décio Krause & Antonio Videira (eds.) - 2010 - Dordrecht, Netherland: Springer.
    This volume, The Brazilian Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, is the first attempt to present to a general audience, works from Brazil on this subject. The included papers are original, covering a remarkable number of relevant topics of philosophy of science, logic and on the history of science. The Brazilian community has increased in the last years in quantity and in quality of the works, most of them being published in respectable international journals on the subject. The (...)
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  • Identity and individuality in quantum theory.Steven French - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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  • Natural Kinds as Scientific Models.Luiz Henrique Dutra - 2011 - Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 290:141-150.
    The concept of natural kind is center stage in the debates about scientific realism. Champions of scientific realism such as Richard Boyd hold that our most developed scientific theories allow us to “cut the world at its joints” (Boyd, 1981, 1984, 1991). In the long run we can disclose natural kinds as nature made them, though as science progresses improvements in theory allow us to revise the extension of natural kind terms.
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  • Particles, objects, and physics.Justin Pniower - unknown
    This thesis analyses the ontological nature of quantum particles. In it I argue that quantum particles, despite their indistinguishability, are objects in much the same way as classical particles. This similarity provides an important point of continuity between classical and quantum physics. I consider two notions of indistinguishability, that of indiscernibility and permutation symmetry. I argue that neither sort of indistinguishability undermines the identity of quantum particles. I further argue that, when we understand in distinguishability in terms of permutation symmetry, (...)
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  • “Let the Occult Quality Go”: Interpreting Berkley's Metaphysics of Science.Tom Stoneham & Angelo Cei - 2009 - European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 5 (1):73 - 91.
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  • Algebraic aspects of quantum indiscernibility.Decio Krause & Hercules de Araujo Feitosa - unknown
    We show that using quasi-set theory, or the theory of collections of indistinguishable objects, we can define an algebra that has most of the standard properties of an orthocomplete orthomodular lattice, which is the lattice of all closed subspaces of a Hilbert space. We call the mathematical structure so obtained $\mathfrak{I}$-lattice. After discussing some aspects of such a structure, we indicate the next problem of axiomatizing the corresponding logic, that is, a logic which has $\mathfrak{I}$-lattices as its Lindembaum algebra, which (...)
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