Rethinking Causality in Quantum Mechanics PDF Download

Author: Christina Giarmatzi
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303031930X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
Causality is central to understanding the mechanisms of nature: some event "A" is the cause of another event “B”. Surprisingly, causality does not follow this simple rule in quantum physics: due to to quantum superposition we might be led to believe that "A causes B” and that "B causes A”. This idea is not only important to the foundations of physics but also leads to practical advantages: a quantum circuit with such indefinite causality performs computationally better than one with definite causality. This thesis provides one of the first comprehensive introductions to quantum causality, and presents a number of advances. It provides an extension and generalization of a framework that enables us to study causality within quantum mechanics, thereby setting the stage for the rest of the work. This comprises: mathematical tools to define causality in terms of probabilities; computational tools to prove indefinite causality in an experiment; means to experimentally test particular causal structures; and finally an algorithm that detects the exact causal structure in an quantum experiment.

Author: W. Baets
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230235794
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Should we rethink growth? Is the abundance of the western world still ethical? Growth, social responsibility and sustainable development are indeed deeply entangled. This book aims to provide the reader with a transversal, holistic view on these issues, and a real understanding of corporate growth, along with its possible alternatives.

Author: Arkady Plotnitsky
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319320688
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
The book considers foundational thinking in quantum theory, focusing on the role the fundamental principles and principle thinking there, including thinking that leads to the invention of new principles, which is, the book contends, one of the ultimate achievements of theoretical thinking in physics and beyond. The focus on principles, prominent during the rise and in the immediate aftermath of quantum theory, has been uncommon in more recent discussions and debates concerning it. The book argues, however, that exploring the fundamental principles and principle thinking is exceptionally helpful in addressing the key issues at stake in quantum foundations and the seemingly interminable debates concerning them. Principle thinking led to major breakthroughs throughout the history of quantum theory, beginning with the old quantum theory and quantum mechanics, the first definitive quantum theory, which it remains within its proper (nonrelativistic) scope. It has, the book also argues, been equally important in quantum field theory, which has been the frontier of quantum theory for quite a while now, and more recently, in quantum information theory, where principle thinking was given new prominence. The approach allows the book to develop a new understanding of both the history and philosophy of quantum theory, from Planck’s quantum to the Higgs boson, and beyond, and of the thinking the key founding figures, such as Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Dirac, as well as some among more recent theorists. The book also extensively considers the nature of quantum probability, and contains a new interpretation of quantum mechanics, “the statistical Copenhagen interpretation.” Overall, the book’s argument is guided by what Heisenberg called “the spirit of Copenhagen,” which is defined by three great divorces from the preceding foundational thinking in physics—reality from realism, probability from causality, and locality from relativity—and defined the fundamental principles of quantum theory accordingly.

Author: Arkady Plotnitsky
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387853340
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
This book offers an exploration of the relationships between epistemology and probability in the work of Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schro- ̈ dinger, and in quantum mechanics and in modern physics as a whole. It also considers the implications of these relationships and of quantum theory itself for our understanding of the nature of human thinking and knowledge in general, or the ‘‘epistemological lesson of quantum mechanics,’’ as Bohr liked 1 to say. These implications are radical and controversial. While they have been seen as scientifically productive and intellectually liberating to some, Bohr and Heisenberg among them, they have been troublesome to many others, such as Schro ̈ dinger and, most prominently, Albert Einstein. Einstein famously refused to believe that God would resort to playing dice or rather to playing with nature in the way quantum mechanics appeared to suggest, which is indeed quite different from playing dice. According to his later (sometime around 1953) remark, a lesser known or commented upon but arguably more important one: ‘‘That the Lord should play [dice], all right; but that He should gamble according to definite rules [i. e. , according to the rules of quantum mechanics, rather than 2 by merely throwing dice], that is beyond me. ’’ Although Einstein’s invocation of God is taken literally sometimes, he was not talking about God but about the way nature works. Bohr’s reply on an earlier occasion to Einstein’s question 1 Cf.

Author: Philip Clayton
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1451416040
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
In Adventures in the Spirit, respected and influential theologian Philip Clayton argues that two major intellectual movements of our day-panentheism and emergence-are converging and that together they offer exciting new vistas for theological reflection. On the one hand, over the last decades many theologians have been re-conceiving the God-world relation panentheistically, affirming a radical indwelling of God within the world and the world within God. On the other hand, scientists have begun to abandon the reductionist ideology that characterized much of the modern period, with a new emphasis on emergence. Their study of how new, novel structures and entities arise throughout the evolutionary process yields a much more open-ended, holistic vision of reality, Clayton argues.

Author: David M. Boje
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 144386823X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
Being Quantum: Ontological Storytelling in the Age of Antenarrative is the first collection of its kind in the newly emerging quantum storytelling genre. Quantum storytelling provides an approach to organizational change based on interconnectedness, embeddedness, and entanglement. This volume offers the reader a collection of thoughtful perspectives on organization development, each inspired by quantum physics and its influence on human thought. Chapters are organized into four sections, addressing concepts related to time, space, matter, and spirituality. Each chapter addresses multiple areas to present the reader with a deeply interconnected series of analytical and interpretive pieces that bring quantum storytelling to life.

Author: J. S. Bell
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9789810246884
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This book is the most complete collection of John S Bell's research papers, review articles and lecture notes on the foundations of quantum mechanics. Some of this material has hitherto been difficult to access. The book also appears in a paperback edition, aimed at students and young researchers.This volume will be very useful to researchers in the foundations and applications of quantum mechanics.

Author: Travis Norsen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319658670
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Authored by an acclaimed teacher of quantum physics and philosophy, this textbook pays special attention to the aspects that many courses sweep under the carpet. Traditional courses in quantum mechanics teach students how to use the quantum formalism to make calculations. But even the best students - indeed, especially the best students - emerge rather confused about what, exactly, the theory says is going on, physically, in microscopic systems. This supplementary textbook is designed to help such students understand that they are not alone in their confusions (luminaries such as Albert Einstein, Erwin Schroedinger, and John Stewart Bell having shared them), to sharpen their understanding of the most important difficulties associated with interpreting quantum theory in a realistic manner, and to introduce them to the most promising attempts to formulate the theory in a way that is physically clear and coherent. The text is accessible to students with at least one semester of prior exposure to quantum (or "modern") physics and includes over a hundred engaging end-of-chapter "Projects" that make the book suitable for either a traditional classroom or for self-study.

Author: Karen Barad
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822339175
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 548

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Book Description
A theoretical physicist and feminist theorist, Karen Barad elaborates her theory of agential realism, a schema that is at once a new epistemology, ontology, and ethics.

Author: Paul Van Geert
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461538424
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
This is the first of a two-volume work in the Annals series devoted to developmental psychology. The project was originally conceived in 1985 when Paul van Geert, who had just completed his Theory building in developmental psychology (North Holland, 1986), agreed to col laborate on anAnnals volume examining foundational issues pertaining to the concept of development. The project attracted considerable interest and, in view of the length of the resulting manuscript, a decision was made to publish it in two volumes. Fortunately, the contributors provided coherent perspectives on two relatively distinct developmen tal themes which served to facilitate our task of dividing their contribu tions into two volumes. The first volume deals with the foundations of developmental theory and methodology; the second volume -to appear as Volume 8 of the Annals -with theoretical issues in developmental psychology. In this first volume, the contributions by Willis Overton and Joachim Wohlwill were completed in 1988, those by Roger Dixon, Richard Lerner, and David Hultsch, and Paul van Geert in 1989. Commentaries followed quickly and replies to commentaries were completed in 1990. Paul van Geert provides a general framework within which the founda tional issues of development are discussed. He is especially concerned with the nature of transition models and the structure of time in developmental theory. The relationship between methods and framework, or theory, is the topic of Joachim Wohlwill's contribution.