The Experts below are selected from a list of 3435 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Rochelle Forrester - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the problems of quantum mechanics and possible solutions Copenhagen Interpretation many worlds Interpretation transactional Interpretation decoherence and quantum logic
Social Science Research Network, 2021Co-Authors: Rochelle ForresterAbstract:This paper reviews some of the literature on the philosophy of quantum mechanics. The publications involved tend to follow similar patterns of first identifying the mysteries, puzzles or paradoxes of the quantum world, and then discussing the existing Interpretations of these matters, before the authors produce their own Interpretations, or side with one of the existing views. The paper will show that all Interpretations of quantum mechanics involve elements of apparent weirdness. They suggest that the quantum world, and possibly our macro world, exists or behaves in a way quite contrary to the way we normally imagine they should. The paper will also show how many of the writers on quantum mechanics misunderstand idealism in the macro world as proposed by philosophers such as George Berkeley, David Hume, Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill and misunderstand the concept of the observer dependent universe. The paper concludes by examining the similarities between the idealist view of the macro world and the Copenhagen Interpretation of the quantum world and suggests that as the Copenhagen Interpretation provides a view of the quantum world that is consistent with the macro world then the Copenhagen Interpretation should be the preferred view of the quantum world.
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the bohr and einstein debate Copenhagen Interpretation challenged
Social Science Research Network, 2018Co-Authors: Rochelle ForresterAbstract:The Bohr Einstein debate on the meaning of quantum physics involved Einstein inventing a series of thought experiments to challenge the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum physics. Einstein disliked many aspects of the Copenhagen Interpretation especially its idea of an observer dependent universe. Bohr was able to answer all Einstein’s objections to the Copenhagen Interpretation and so is usually considered as winning the debate. However the debate has continued into the present time as many scientists have been unable to accept the idea of an observer dependent universe and many alternatives to the Copenhagen Interpretation have been proposed. However none of the alternatives has won general acceptance because all have problems that make them implausible or impossible.
G Szamosi - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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naturalizing the Copenhagen Interpretation
Dialectica, 2005Co-Authors: G SzamosiAbstract:Summary The problem of quantum measurement is considered in the framework of a naturalized and evolutionary epistemology. Consider two simple textbook observations: a) quantum measurement is an information processing method invented for the purpose of exploring domains of the external world which are not accessible otherwise b) quantum measurement interprets signals from the external world with the help of a computing algorithm invented specifically for this purpose. Replace the words “quantum measurement” and “invented” in a) and b) by “vision” and “evolved respectively”. Both sentences remain simple textbook observations; this time about vision and its biological evolution. Since both a) and b) are substantial statements whether they refer to vision or to quantum measurement the analogy between these processes suggests that quantum measurement may be viewed as a culturally evolved perceptual mode. This idea is explored further by comparing the developments of vision and of quantum measurement. The comparison reveals some interesting similarities between the two processes. One result of the comparison and of viewing quantum measurement as a perceptual mode is a realistic formulation of the Copenhagen Interpretation which in turn permits a rational explanation of why, in quantum measurement, some observables exist in nature only when observed.
Mario Bunge - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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twenty five centuries of quantum physics from pythagoras to us and from subjectivism to realism
Science Education, 2003Co-Authors: Mario BungeAbstract:Three main theses are proposed. The first is that the idea of a quantum or minimal unit is not peculiar to quantum theory, since it already occurs in the classical theories of elasticity and electrolysis. Second, the peculiarities of the objects described by quantum theory are the following: their basic laws are probabilistic; some of their properties, such as position and energy, are blunt rather than sharp; two particles that were once together continue to be associated even after becoming spatially separated; and the vacuum has physical properties, so that it is a kind of matter. Third, the orthodox or Copenhagen Interpretation of the theory is false, and may conveniently be replaced with a realist (though not classicist) Interpretation. Heisenberg's inequality, Schrodinger's cat and Zeno's quantum paradox are discussed in the light of the two rival Interpretations. It is also shown that the experiments that falsified Bell's inequality do not refute realism but the classicism inherent in hidden variables theories.
Willem M. De Muynck - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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from Copenhagen to neo Copenhagen Interpretation
Reconsideration of Foundations - 4 on Quantum Theory, 2007Co-Authors: Willem M. De MuynckAbstract:Positive and negative features of the Copenhagen Interpretation are discussed. As positive features can be mentioned its pragmatism and its awareness of the crucial role of measurement. However, the main part of the contribution is devoted to the negative features, to wit, its pragmatism (once again), its confounding of preparation and measurement, its classical account of measurement, its completeness claims, the ambiguity of its notion of correspondence, its confused notion of complementarity. It is demonstrated how confusions and paradoxes stemming from the negative features of the Copenhagen Interpretation can be dealt with in an amended Interpretation, to be referred to as ‘neo‐Copenhagen Interpretation’, in which the role of the measuring instrument is taken seriously by recognizing the quantum mechanical character of its interaction with the microscopic object. The ensuing necessity of extending the notion of a quantum mechanical observable from the Hermitian operator of the standard formalism to the positive operator‐valued measure of a generalized formalism yields a sound mathematical basis for a transition from the Copenhagen contextualistic‐realist Interpretation to the neo‐Copenhagen empiricist one. Applications to the uncertainty relations and to the Bell inequalities are briefly discussed.
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Towards a Neo-Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
Foundations of Physics, 2004Co-Authors: Willem M. De MuynckAbstract:The Copenhagen Interpretation is critically considered. A number of ambiguities, inconsistencies and confusions are discussed. It is argued that it is possible to purge the Interpretation so as to obtain a consistent and reasonable way to interpret the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics, which is in agreement with the way this theory is dealt with in experimental practice. In particular, the essential role attributed by the Copenhagen Interpretation to measurement is acknowledged. For this reason it is proposed to refer to it as a neo-Copenhagen Interpretation.
G Torres F Del Castillo - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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symplectic quantization inequivalent quantum theories and heisenberg s principle of uncertainty
Physical Review A, 2004Co-Authors: Merced Montesinos, G Torres F Del CastilloAbstract:We analyze the quantum dynamics of the nonrelativistic two-dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator in Heisenberg's picture. Such a system is taken as a toy model to analyze some of the various quantum theories that can be built from the application of Dirac's quantization rule to the various symplectic structures recently reported for this classical system. It is pointed out that that these quantum theories are inequivalent in the sense that the mean values for the operators (observables) associated with the same physical classical observable do not agree with each other. The inequivalence does not arise from ambiguities in the ordering of operators but from the fact of having several symplectic structures defined with respect to the same set of coordinates. It is also shown that the uncertainty relations between the fundamental observables depend on the particular quantum theory chosen. It is important to emphasize that these (somehow paradoxical) results emerge from the combination of two paradigms: Dirac's quantization rule and the usual Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics.