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  1. A New Quantum Theoretical Framework for Parapsychology.Chris Clarke - 2008 - European Journal of Parapsychology 23 (1):3-30.
    An account is given of a recent proposal to complete modern quantum theory by adding a characterisation of consciousness. The resulting theory is applied to give mechanisms for typical parapsychological phenomena, and ways of testing it are discussed.
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  • A history of entanglement: Decoherence and the interpretation problem.Kristian Camilleri - 2009 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40 (4):290-302.
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  • Information, physics, quantum: the search for links.John Archibald Wheeler - 1989 - In Wheeler John Archibald (ed.), Proceedings III International Symposium on Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. pp. 354-358.
    This report reviews what quantum physics and information theory have to tell us about the age-old question, How come existence? No escape is evident from four conclusions: (1) The world cannot be a giant machine, ruled by any preestablished continuum physical law. (2) There is no such thing at the microscopic level as space or time or spacetime continuum. (3) The familiar probability function or functional, and wave equation or functional wave equation, of standard quantum theory provide mere continuum idealizations (...)
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  • Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.Lev Vaidman - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
    The Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) is an approach to quantum mechanics according to which, in addition to the world we are aware of directly, there are many other similar worlds which exist in parallel at the same space and time. The existence of the other worlds makes it possible to remove randomness and action at a distance from quantum theory and thus from all physics.
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  • (1 other version)The role of decoherence in quantum mechanics.Guido Bacciagaluppi - 2003 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
    Interference phenomena are a well-known and crucial feature of quantum mechanics, the two-slit experiment providing a standard example. There are situations, however, in which interference effects are (artificially or spontaneously) suppressed. We shall need to make precise what this means, but the theory of decoherence is the study of (spontaneous) interactions between a system and its environment that lead to such suppression of interference. This study includes detailed modelling of system-environment interactions, derivation of equations (‘master equations’) for the (reduced) state (...)
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  • Emergent Realities: Diffracting Barad within a quantum-realist ontology of matter and politics.Thomas Everth & Laura Gurney - 2022 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 12 (3):1-20.
    One of the most influential contemporary authors of the new materialist turn in the social sciences is Karen Barad. Barad’s work in agential realism, based on her interpretations of quantum physics, has been widely cited within a growing body of new materialist publications. However, in translating Barad’s assertions into social domains, there has been increasing critical appraisal of the physics underlying her work and its relationship with non-quantum domains. In this paper, we contribute to this discussion by exploring aspects of (...)
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  • Empirical adequacy and the availability of reliable records in quantum mechanics.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 1996 - Philosophy of Science 63 (1):49-64.
    In order to judge whether a theory is empirically adequate one must have epistemic access to reliable records of past measurement results that can be compared against the predictions of the theory. Some formulations of quantum mechanics fail to satisfy this condition. The standard theory without the collapse postulate is an example. Bell's reading of Everett's relative-state formulation is another. Furthermore, there are formulations of quantum mechanics that only satisfy this condition for a special class of observers, formulations whose empirical (...)
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  • Consciousness and quantum interference: An experimental approach.C. H. Woo - 1981 - Foundations of Physics 11 (11-12):933-44.
    After a discussion of the possible connections between quantum mechanics and consciousness, and an examination of the circumstances under which some properties of a macroscopic system may be described by a quantum mechanical wave function, we propose three types of experiments in which one may search for the possible existence of quantal interference in mental events.
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  • ‘Many Minds’ Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics.Michael Lockwood - 1996 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 47 (2):159-88.
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  • The Decoherent Arrow of Time and the Entanglement Past Hypothesis.Jim Al-Khalili & Eddy Keming Chen - 2024 - Foundations of Physics 54 (49).
    If an asymmetry in time does not arise from the fundamental dynamical laws of physics, it may be found in special boundary conditions. The argument normally goes that since thermodynamic entropy in the past is lower than in the future according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, then tracing this back to the time around the Big Bang means the universe must have started off in a state of very low thermodynamic entropy: the Thermodynamic Past Hypothesis. In this paper, we (...)
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  • Reversing the arrow of time.Bryan W. Roberts - 2022 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    'The arrow of time' refers to the curious asymmetry that distinguishes the future from the past. Reversing the Arrow of Time argues that there is an intimate link between the symmetries of 'time itself' and time reversal symmetry in physical theories, which has wide-ranging implications for both physics and its philosophy. This link helps to clarify how we can learn about the symmetries of our world, how to understand the relationship between symmetries and what is real, and how to overcome (...)
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  • Pointers for Quantum Measurement Theory.Jay Lawrence - 2023 - Foundations of Physics 53 (4):1-17.
    In the iconic measurements of atomic spin-1/2 or photon polarization, one employs two separate noninteracting detectors. Each detector is binary, registering the presence or absence of the atom or the photon. For measurements on a d-state particle, we recast the standard von Neumann measurement formalism by replacing the familiar pointer variable with an array of such detectors, one for each of the d possible outcomes. We show that the unitary dynamics of the pre-measurement process restricts the detector outputs to the (...)
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  • A Higher Dimension of Consciousness: Constructing an empirically falsifiable panpsychist model of consciousness.Jacob Jolij - manuscript
    Panpsychism is a solution to the mind-body problem that presumes that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of reality instead of a product or consequence of physical processes (i.e., brain activity). Panpsychism is an elegant solution to the mind-body problem: it effectively rids itself of the explanatory gap materialist theories of consciousness suffer from. However, many theorists and experimentalists doubt panpsychism can ever be successful as a scientific theory, as it cannot be empirically verified or falsified. In this paper, I present (...)
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  • Gentzen’s “cut rule” and quantum measurement in terms of Hilbert arithmetic. Metaphor and understanding modeled formally.Vasil Penchev - 2022 - Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics eJournal 14 (14):1-37.
    Hilbert arithmetic in a wide sense, including Hilbert arithmetic in a narrow sense consisting by two dual and anti-isometric Peano arithmetics, on the one hand, and the qubit Hilbert space (originating for the standard separable complex Hilbert space of quantum mechanics), on the other hand, allows for an arithmetic version of Gentzen’s cut elimination and quantum measurement to be described uniformy as two processes occurring accordingly in those two branches. A philosophical reflection also justifying that unity by quantum neo-Pythagoreanism links (...)
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  • The preferred basis problem in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics: why decoherence does not solve it.Meir Hemmo & Orly Shenker - 2022 - Synthese 200 (3):1-25.
    We start by very briefly describing the measurement problem in quantum mechanics and its solution by the Many Worlds Interpretation. We then describe the preferred basis problem, and the role of decoherence in the MWI. We discuss a number of approaches to the preferred basis problem and argue that contrary to the received wisdom, decoherence by itself does not solve the problem. We address Wallace’s emergentist approach based on what he calls Dennett’s criterion, and we compare the logical structure of (...)
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  • The Open Systems View.Michael E. Cuffaro & Stephan Hartmann - 2023
    There is a deeply entrenched view in philosophy and physics, the closed systems view, according to which isolated systems are conceived of as fundamental. On this view, when a system is under the influence of its environment this is described in terms of a coupling between it and a separate system which taken together are isolated. We argue against this view, and in favor of the alternative open systems view, for which systems interacting with their environment are conceived of as (...)
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  • Stable Facts, Relative Facts.Carlo Rovelli & Andrea Di Biagio - 2021 - Foundations of Physics 51 (1):1-13.
    Facts happen at every interaction, but they are not absolute: they are relative to the systems involved in the interaction. Stable facts are those whose relativity can effectively be ignored. In this work, we describe how stable facts emerge in a world of relative facts and discuss their respective roles in connecting quantum theory and the world. The distinction between relative and stable facts resolves the difficulties pointed out by the no-go theorem of Frauchiger and Renner, and is consistent with (...)
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  • Fermi’s Golden Rule and the Second Law of Thermodynamics.D. Braak & J. Mannhart - 2020 - Foundations of Physics 50 (11):1509-1540.
    We present a Gedankenexperiment that leads to a violation of detailed balance if quantum mechanical transition probabilities are treated in the usual way by applying Fermi’s “golden rule”. This Gedankenexperiment introduces a collection of two-level systems that absorb and emit radiation randomly through non-reciprocal coupling to a waveguide, as realized in specific chiral quantum optical systems. The non-reciprocal coupling is modeled by a hermitean Hamiltonian and is compatible with the time-reversal invariance of unitary quantum dynamics. Surprisingly, the combination of non-reciprocity (...)
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  • A single-world consistent interpretation of quantum mechanics from fundamental time and length uncertainties.Rodolfo Gambini, Luis Pedro Garcia-Pintos & Jorge Pullin - 2018 - Physical Review A 100 (012).
    Within ordinary ---unitary--- quantum mechanics there exist global protocols that allow to verify that no definite event ---an outcome to which a probability can be associated--- occurs. Instead, states that start in a coherent superposition over possible outcomes always remain as a superposition. We show that, when taking into account fundamental errors in measuring length and time intervals, that have been put forward as a consequence of a conjunction of quantum mechanical and general relativity arguments, there are instances in which (...)
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  • A search for new physics in high-mass ditau events in the ATLAS detector.Ryan Reece - 2013 - Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania
    This thesis is a work of experimental physics, a search for new physics with the ATLAS experiment. I post this thesis on the PhilArchive because it includes a pedagogical summary of quantum mechanics and the standard model of particle physics in the combination of chapters 1-2 and appendix A. This was my attempt at the end of my PhD of giving a bird's eye view of the standard model, with a thorough bibliography of the publication trail that lead to its (...)
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  • Objectivity in Quantum Measurement.Sheng-Wen Li, C. Y. Cai, X. F. Liu & C. P. Sun - 2018 - Foundations of Physics 48 (6):654-667.
    The objectivity is a basic requirement for the measurements in the classical world, namely, different observers must reach a consensus on their measurement results, so that they believe that the object exists “objectively” since whoever measures it obtains the same result. We find that this simple requirement of objectivity indeed imposes an important constraint upon quantum measurements, i.e., if two or more observers could reach a consensus on their quantum measurement results, their measurement basis must be orthogonal vector sets. This (...)
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  • Yes, More Decoherence: A Reply to Critics.Elise M. Crull - 2017 - Foundations of Physics 47 (11):1428-1463.
    Recently I published an article in this journal entitled “Less interpretation and more decoherence in quantum gravity and inflationary cosmology” :1019–1045, 2015). This article generated responses from three pairs of authors: Vassallo and Esfeld :1533–1536, 2015), Okon and Sudarsky :852–879, 2016) and Fortin and Lombardi. In what follows, I reply to the criticisms raised by these authors.
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  • The decoherence puzzle.P. C. E. Stamp - 2006 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 37 (3):467-497.
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  • Quantum theory without measurement or state reduction problems.Alan Macdonald - manuscript
    There is a consistent and simple interpretation of the quantum theory of isolated systems. The interpretation suffers no measurement problem and provides a quantum explanation of state reduction, which is usually postulated. Quantum entanglement plays an essential role in the construction of the interpretation.
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  • Quantum Mechanics and Intentionality.Godehard Brüntrup - 2014 - In Antonella Corradini & Uwe Meixner (eds.), Quantum Physics Meets the Philosophy of Mind: New Essays on the Mind-Body Relation in Quantum-Theoretical Perspective. Boston: De Gruyter. pp. 35-49.
    An essay on the connection between the mind-body-problem and quantum mechanics.
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  • Niels Bohr as philosopher of experiment: Does decoherence theory challenge Bohr׳s doctrine of classical concepts?Kristian Camilleri & Maximilian Schlosshauer - 2015 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 49:73-83.
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  • Less Interpretation and More Decoherence in Quantum Gravity and Inflationary Cosmology.Elise M. Crull - 2015 - Foundations of Physics 45 (9):1019-1045.
    I argue that quantum decoherence—understood as a dynamical process entailed by the standard formalism alone—carries us beyond conceptual aspects of non-relativistic quantum mechanics deemed insurmountable by many contributors to the recent quantum gravity and cosmology literature. These aspects include various incarnations of the measurement problem and of the quantum -to-classical puzzle. Not only can such problems be largely bypassed or dissolved without default to a particular interpretation, but theoretical work in relativistic arenas stands to gain substantial physical and philosophical insight (...)
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  • Partial Traces in Decoherence and in Interpretation: What Do Reduced States Refer to?Sebastian Fortin & Olimpia Lombardi - 2014 - Foundations of Physics 44 (4):426-446.
    The interpretation of the concept of reduced state is a subtle issue that has relevant consequences when the task is the interpretation of quantum mechanics itself. The aim of this paper is to argue that reduced states are not the quantum states of subsystems in the same sense as quantum states are states of the whole composite system. After clearly stating the problem, our argument is developed in three stages. First, we consider the phenomenon of environment-induced decoherence as an example (...)
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  • Quantum Discreteness is an Illusion.H. Dieter Zeh - 2010 - Foundations of Physics 40 (9-10):1476-1493.
    I review arguments demonstrating how the concept of “particle” numbers arises in the form of equidistant energy eigenvalues of coupled harmonic oscillators representing free fields. Their quantum numbers (numbers of nodes of the wave functions) can be interpreted as occupation numbers for objects with a formal mass (defined by the field equation) and spatial wave number (“momentum”) characterizing classical field modes. A superposition of different oscillator eigenstates, all consisting of n modes having one node, while all others have none, defines (...)
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  • A Physics-Based Metaphysics is a Metaphysics-Based Metaphysics.Chris Fields - 2014 - Acta Analytica 29 (2):131-148.
    The common practice of advancing arguments based on current physics in support of metaphysical conclusions has been criticized on the grounds that current physics may well be wrong. A further criticism is leveled here: current physics itself depends on metaphysical assumptions, so arguing from current physics is in fact arguing from yet more metaphysics. It is shown that the metaphysical assumptions underlying current physics are often deeply embedded in the formalism in which theories are presented, and hence impossible to dismiss (...)
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  • Quantum Mechanics, Spacetime Locality, and Gravity.Yasunori Nomura - 2013 - Foundations of Physics 43 (8):978-1007.
    Quantum mechanics introduces the concept of probability at the fundamental level, yielding the measurement problem. On the other hand, recent progress in cosmology has led to the “multiverse” picture, in which our observed universe is only one of the many, bringing an apparent arbitrariness in defining probabilities, called the measure problem. In this paper, we discuss how these two problems are related with each other, developing a picture for quantum measurement and cosmological histories in the quantum mechanical universe. In order (...)
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  • A New Theory of Free Will.Marcus Arvan - 2013 - Philosophical Forum 44 (1):1-48.
    This paper shows that several live philosophical and scientific hypotheses – including the holographic principle and multiverse theory in quantum physics, and eternalism and mind-body dualism in philosophy – jointly imply an audacious new theory of free will. This new theory, "Libertarian Compatibilism", holds that the physical world is an eternally existing array of two-dimensional information – a vast number of possible pasts, presents, and futures – and the mind a nonphysical entity or set of properties that "read" that physical (...)
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  • The quantum principle: its interpretation and epistemology.Jagdish Mehra - 1974 - Boston: D. Reidel.
    This paper deals with the development of, and the current discussion about, the interpretation of quantum mechanics. The following topics are discussed: 1. The Copenhagen Interpretation, 2. Formal Problems of Quantum Mechanics, 3. Process of Measurement and the Equation of Motion, 4. Macroscopic Level of Description, 5. Search for Hidden Variables, 6. The Notion of “Reality” and Epistemology of Quantum Mechanics, 7. Quantum Mechanics and the Explanation of Life.The Bohr‐Einstein dialogue on the validity of the quantum mechanical description of physical (...)
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  • Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.Jan Faye - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
    As the theory of the atom, quantum mechanics is perhaps the most successful theory in the history of science. It enables physicists, chemists, and technicians to calculate and predict the outcome of a vast number of experiments and to create new and advanced technology based on the insight into the behavior of atomic objects. But it is also a theory that challenges our imagination. It seems to violate some fundamental principles of classical physics, principles that eventually have become a part (...)
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  • Undermind.Steven Weinstein - 1996 - Synthese 106 (2):241 - 251.
    David Albert and Barry Loewer have proposed a new interpretation of quantum mechanics which they call the Many Minds interpretation, according to which there are infinitely many minds associated with a given (physical) state of a brain. This interpretation is related to the family of many worlds interpretations insofar as it assumes strictly unitary (Schrödinger) time-evolution of quantum-mechanical systems (no reduction of the wave-packet). The Many Minds interpretation itself is principally motivated by an argument which purports to show that the (...)
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  • How decoherence can solve the measurement problem.Dieter Zeh - manuscript
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  • Nonseparability and quantum chaos.Frederick M. Kronz - 1998 - Philosophy of Science 65 (1):50-75.
    Conventional wisdom has it that chaotic behavior is either strongly suppressed or absent in quantum models. Indeed, some researchers have concluded that these considerations serve to undermine the correspondence principle, thereby raising serious doubts about the adequacy of quantum mechanics. Thus, the quantum chaos question is a prime subject for philosophical analysis. The most significant reasons given for the absence or suppression of chaotic behavior in quantum models are the linearity of Schrödinger’s equation and the unitarity of the time-evolution described (...)
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  • Observing a Quantum Measurement.Jay Lawrence - 2021 - Foundations of Physics 52 (1):1-17.
    With the example of a Stern–Gerlach measurement on a spin-1/2 atom, we show that a superposition of both paths may be observed compatibly with properties attributed to state collapse—for example, the singleness (or mutual exclusivity) of outcomes. This is done by inserting a quantum two-state system (an ancilla) in each path, capable of responding to the passage of the atom, and thus acting as a virtual detector. We then consider real measurements on the compound system of atomic spin and two (...)
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  • Bell's theorem: A bridge between the measurement and the mind/body problems.Badis Ydri - manuscript
    In this essay a quantum-dualistic, perspectival and synchronistic interpretation of quantum mechanics is further developed in which the classical world-from-decoherence which is perceived (decoherence) and the perceived world-in-consciousness which is classical (collapse) are not necessarily identified. Thus, Quantum Reality or "{\it unus mundus}" is seen as both i) a physical non-perspectival causal Reality where the quantum-to-classical transition is operated by decoherence, and as ii) a quantum linear superposition of all classical psycho-physical perspectival Realities which are governed by synchronicity as well (...)
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  • John Bell on ‘Subject and Object’: An Exchange.Hans Halvorson & Jeremy Butterfield - 2022 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 54 (2):305-324.
    This three-part paper comprises: (i) a critique by Halvorson of Bell’s (1973) paper ‘Subject and Object’; (ii) a comment by Butterfield; (iii) a reply by Halvorson. An Appendix gives the passage from Bell that is the focus of Halvorson’s critique.
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  • In the chaos of today's society: The dynamics of collapse as another shift in the quantum anthropology of Heidi Ann Russell.Radek Trnka - 2015 - Prague: Togga.
    The presented study introduces a new theoretical model of collapse for social, cultural, or political systems. Based on the current form of quantum anthropology conceptualized by Heidi Ann Russell, further development of this field is provided. The new theoretical model is called the spiral model of collapses, and is suggested to provide an analytical framework for collapses in social, cultural, and political systems. The main conclusions of this study are: 1) The individual crises in the period before a collapse of (...)
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  • Quantum dissidents: Research on the foundations of quantum theory circa 1970.Olival Freire - 2009 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 40 (4):280-289.
    This paper makes a collective biographical profile of a sample of physicists who were protagonists in the research on the foundations of quantum physics circa 1970. We study the cases of Zeh, Bell, Clauser, Shimony, Wigner, Rosenfeld, d’Espagnat, Selleri, and DeWitt, analyzing their training and early career, achievements, qualms with quantum mechanics, motivations for such research, professional obstacles, attitude towards the Copenhagen interpretation, and success and failures. Except for Rosenfeld, they were all dissidents, fighting against the dominant attitude among physicists (...)
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  • The Measurement Problem: Decoherence and Convivial Solipsism.Hervé Zwirn - 2016 - Foundations of Physics 46 (6):635-667.
    The problem of measurement is often considered an inconsistency inside the quantum formalism. Many attempts to solve it have been made since the inception of quantum mechanics. The form of these attempts depends on the philosophical position that their authors endorse. I will review some of them and analyze their relevance. The phenomenon of decoherence is often presented as a solution lying inside the pure quantum formalism and not demanding any particular philosophical assumption. Nevertheless, a widely debated question is to (...)
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  • The Bohm Interpretation of Quantum Cosmology.Nelson Pinto-Neto - 2005 - Foundations of Physics 35 (4):577-603.
    I make a review on the aplications of the Bohm-de Broglie interpretation of quantum mechanics to quantum cosmology. In the framework of minisuperspaces models, I show how quantum cosmological effects in Bohm’s view can avoid the initial singularity, and isotropize the Universe. In the general case, I enumerate the possible structures of quantum space and time.
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  • Everett’s pure wave mechanics and the notion of worlds.Jeffrey A. Barrett - 2011 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 1 (2):277-302.
    Everett (1957a, b, 1973) relative-state formulation of quantum mechanics has often been taken to involve a metaphysical commitment to the existence of many splitting worlds each containing physical copies of observers and the objects they observe. While there was earlier talk of splitting worlds in connection with Everett, this is largely due to DeWitt’s (Phys Today 23:30–35, 1970) popular presentation of the theory. While the thought of splitting worlds or parallel universes has captured the popular imagination, Everett himself favored the (...)
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  • Consistency and Some Other Requirements of a Formal Theory in the Context of Multiverse Models.Ivan Karpenko - 2024 - Studia Humana 13 (4):23-34.
    The paper is devoted to the problem of describing reality in the language of mathematics and logic in connection with intellectual intuition. The question raised is how the basic requirements of mathematical theory and logic will change if some of the multiverse models of modern physics are taken as the basis. Mathematics is considered in the context of various historical approaches. It is shown that some of the well-known requirements of a formal theory (such as consistency) may begin to play (...)
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  • Decoherence as a High-Dimensional Geometrical Phenomenon.Antoine Soulas - 2023 - Foundations of Physics 54 (1):1-20.
    We develop a mathematical formalism that allows to study decoherence with a great level generality, so as to make it appear as a geometrical phenomenon between reservoirs of dimensions. It enables us to give quantitative estimates of the level of decoherence induced by a purely random environment on a system according to their respectives sizes, and to exhibit some links with entanglement entropy.
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  • Quantum Arrangements.Gregg Jaeger & Anton Zeilinger - 2021 - Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature.
    This book presents a collection of novel contributions and reviews by renowned researchers in the foundations of quantum physics, quantum optics, and neutron physics. It is published in honor of Michael Horne, whose exceptionally clear and groundbreaking work in the foundations of quantum mechanics and interferometry, both of photons and of neutrons, has provided penetrating insight into the implications of modern physics for our understanding of the physical world. He is perhaps best known for the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) inequality. This collection (...)
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  • Hard presentism.Patrick Dawson - 2020 - Synthese 198 (9):8433-8461.
    Presentists believe that only present things exist. Their theories, at first glance, seem to offer many admirable features: a simple ontology, and a meaningful, objective status for key temporal phenomena, such as the present moment and the passage of time. So intuitive is this theory that, as John Bigelow puts it, presentism was “believed by everyone...until at least the nineteenth century”. Yet, in the last 200 years presentism has been beset by criticisms from both physicists and metaphysicians. One of the (...)
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  • Beyond the Neomaterialist Divide: Negotiating Between Eliminative and Vital Materialism with Integrated Information Theory.Alexander Wilson - 2018 - Theory, Culture and Society 35 (7-8):97-116.
    Though most neomaterialists share a commitment to the Copernican decentring of humans from the world stage, there is disagreement on the purposes of such an endeavour. The polemic stems from a fundamental discrepancy about what the return to materiality entails: is matter the principle of the non-thinking as such, or is it always already imbued with some sort of subjectivity? Is the new materialism’s goal to come to terms with the non-living origin of life? Or is it rather to recognize (...)
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