Abstract

The PBR theorem gives insight into how quantum mechanics describes a physical system. This paper explores PBRs’ general result and shows that it does not disallow the ensemble interpretation of quantum mechanics and maintains, as it must, the fundamentally statistical character of quantum mechanics. This is illustrated by drawing an analogy with an ideal gas. An ensemble interpretation of the Schrödinger cat experiment that does not violate the PBR conclusion is also given. The ramifications, limits, and weaknesses of the PBR assumptions, especially in light of lessons learned from Bell’s theorem, are elucidated. It is shown that, if valid, PBRs’ conclusion specifies what type of ensemble interpretations are possible. The PBR conclusion would require a more direct correspondence between the quantum state (e.g., \( \left| {\psi \rangle } \right. \) ) and the reality it describes than might otherwise be expected. A simple terminology is introduced to clarify this greater correspondence.

Publication date: Available online 23 November 2018

Source: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics

Author(s): Kelvin J. McQueen, Lev Vaidman

Crowther, Karen (2017) Inter-theory Relations in Quantum Gravity: Correspondence, Reduction, and Emergence. [Preprint]

Marsh, Brendan Depictions of Quantum Reality in Kent’s Interpretation of Quantum Theory. UNSPECIFIED.

Abstract

Historically, the hypothesis that our world is a computer simulation has struck many as just another improbable-but-possible “skeptical hypothesis” about the nature of reality. Recently, however, the simulation hypothesis has received significant attention from philosophers, physicists, and the popular press. This is due to the discovery of an epistemic dependency: If we believe that our civilization will one day run many simulations concerning its ancestry, then we should believe that we are probably in an ancestor simulation right now. This essay examines a troubling but underexplored feature of the ancestor-simulation hypothesis: the termination risk posed by both ancestor-simulation technology and experimental probes into whether our world is an ancestor simulation. This essay evaluates the termination risk by using extrapolations from current computing practices and simulation technology. The conclusions, while provisional, have great implications for debates concerning the fundamental nature of reality and the safety of contemporary physics.

Gao, Shan (2018) Unitary quantum theories are incompatible with special relativity. [Preprint]

Cuffaro, Michael E. (2018) Universality, Invariance, and the Foundations of Computational Complexity in the light of the Quantum Computer. [Preprint]

Cuffaro, Michael E. (2018) Information Causality, the Tsirelson Bound, and the ‘Being-Thus’ of Things. [Preprint]

Quantum 2, 107 (2018).

https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2018-11-19-107We show that spin systems with infinite-range interactions can violate at thermal equilibrium a multipartite Bell inequality, up to a finite critical temperature $T_c$. Our framework can be applied to a wide class of spin systems and Bell inequalities, to study whether nonlocality occurs naturally in quantum many-body systems close to the ground state. Moreover, we also show that the low-energy spectrum of the Bell operator associated to such systems can be well approximated by the one of a quantum harmonic oscillator, and that spin-squeezed states are optimal in displaying Bell correlations for such Bell inequalities.

In an influential paper, Eppley and Hannah argued that gravity must necessarily be quantized, by proposing a thought experiment involving classical gravitational waves interacting with quantum matter. They argue the interaction must either violate the uncertainty principle or allow superluminal signalling. The feasibility of implementing their experiment in our universe has been challenged by Mattingly, and other limitations of the argument have been noted by Huggett and Callender and by Albers et al . However, these critiques do not directly refute the claim that coupling quantum theories with a Copenhagen collapse postulate to unentanglable classical gravitational degrees of freedom leads to contradiction. I note here that if the gravitational field interacts with matter via the local quantum state, the Eppley–Hannah argument evidently fails. This seems a plausibly natural feature of a hybrid theory, whereas the alternative considered by Eppley–Hannah is evidently incons…

We present a stochastic framework for emergent quantum gravity coupled to matter. The Hamiltonian constraint in diffeomorphism-invariant theories demands the identification of a clock relative to which dynamics may be defined, and other degrees of freedom can play the role of rulers. However, a global system of clock and rulers is generally not available. We provide evidence that stochasticity associated with critical points of clock and ruler fields can be related to the emergence of both a probabilistic description consistent with ordinary quantum theory, and gravitation described by general relativity at long distances. We propose a procedure for embedding any Lorentz-invariant field theory, including the Standard Model and its Lorentz-invariant extensions, in this framework.

Williams, Porter (2018) Renormalization Group Methods. [Preprint]