Motivated by the question what it is that makes quantum mechanics a holistic theory (if so), I try to define for general physical theories what we mean by `holism'. For this purpose I propose an epistemological criterion to decide whether or not a physical theory is holistic, namely: a physical theory is holistic if and only if it is impossible in principle to infer the global properties, as assigned in the theory, by local resources available to an agent. I propose that these resources include at least all local operations and classical communication. This approach is contrasted with the well-known approaches to holism in terms of supervenience. The criterion for holism proposed here involves a shift in emphasis from ontology to epistemology. I apply this epistemological criterion to classical physics and Bohmian mechanics as represented on a phase and configuration space respectively, and for quantum mechanics (in the orthodox interpretation) using the formalism of general quantum operations as completely positive trace non-increasing maps. Furthermore, I provide an interesting example from which one can conclude that quantum mechanics is holistic in the above mentioned sense, although, perhaps surprisingly, no entanglement is needed.
A composite quantum system has properties that are incompatible with every property of its parts. The existence of such global properties incompatible with all local properties constitutes what I call "mereological holism"--the distinctive holism of Quantum Theory. Mereological holism has the dramatic conceptual consequence of making untenable the usual understanding of the "quantum system" as being a "physical object", since composed objects have properties compatible with those of its parts. The notion of "property" can be extended in a unique way to the whole class of operational probabilis…
In our effort to restate a "realistic" approach to quantum mechanics, that would fully acknowledge that local realism is untenable, we add a few more questions and answers to the list presented in quant-ph/0203131. We also suggest to replace the very misleading wording "quantum non-locality" by "quantum holism", that conveys a much better intuitive idea of the physical content of entanglement.
Quantum theory has the property of "local tomography": the state of any composite system can be reconstructed from the statistics of measurements on the individual components. In this respect the holism of quantum theory is limited. We consider in this paper a class of theories more holistic than quantum theory in that they are constrained only by "bilocal tomography": the state of any composite system is determined by the statistics of measurements on pairs of components. Under a few auxiliary assumptions, we derive certain general features of such theories. In particular, we show how the num…
It is shown that having degenerate ground states over the domain of the wavefunction of a system is a sufficient condition for a quantum system to act as a measuring apparatus for the system. Measurements are then instances of spontaneous symmetry breaking to one of these ground states, induced by environmental perturbations. Together with non-Boolean holism this constitutes an optimal formulation of quantum mechanics that does not imply non-locality.
The pros and cons of various forms of atomism and holism that are applicable both in physical science and today's philosophy of nature are evaluated. To this end, Lewis' thesis of Humean supervenience is presented as an important case study of an atomistic doctrine in philosophical thought. According to the thesis of Humean supervenience, the world is fragmented into local matters of particular fact and everything else supervenes upon them in conjunction with the spatiotemporal relations among them. It is explicitly shown that Lewis' ontological doctrine of Humean supervenience incorporates at…
Niels Bohr introduced the concept of complementarity in order to give a general account of quantum mechanics, however he stressed that the idea of complementarity is related to the general dificulty in the formation of human ideas, inherent in the distinction between subject and object. Earlier, we have introduced a development of the concept of complementarity which constitutes a new approach to the interpretation of quantum mechanics. We argue that this development allows a better understanding of some of the paradigmatic interpretational problems of quantum theory. Within the scheme propose…
** The primary topic of this dissertation is the study of the relationships between parts and wholes as described by particular physical theories, namely generalized probability theories in a quasi-classical physics framework and non-relativistic quantum theory. ** A large part of this dissertation is devoted to understanding different aspects of four different kinds of correlations: local, partially-local, no-signaling and quantum mechanical correlations. Novel characteristics of these correlations have been used to study how they are related and how they can be discerned via Bell-type inequa…
The paper has two aims: (1) it sets out to show that it is well motivated to seek for an account of quantum non-locality in the framework of ontic structural realism (OSR), which integrates the notions of holism and non-separability that have been employed since the 1980s to achieve such an account. However, recent research shows that OSR on its own cannot provide such an account. Against this background, the paper argues that by applying OSR to the primitive ontology theories of quantum physics, one can accomplish that task. In particular, Bohmian mechanics offers the best prospect for doing …
The connection is established between two theories that have developed independently with the aim to describe quantum mechanics as a stochastic process, namely stochastic quantum mechanics (sqm) and stochastic electrodynamics (sed). Important commonalities and complementarities between the two theories are identified, notwithstanding their dissimilar origins and approaches. Further, the dynamical equation of sqm is completed with the radiation terms that are an integral element in sed. The central problem of the transition to the quantum dynamics is addressed, pointing to the key role of diffu…
Ontological theories of quantum mechanics describe a single system by means of well-defined classical variables and attribute the quantum uncertainties to our ignorance about the underlying reality represented by these variables. We consider the general class of ontological theories describing a quantum system by a set of variables with Markovian (either deterministic or stochastic) evolution. We provide the first proof that the number of continuous variables can not be smaller than 2N-2, N being the Hilbert space dimension. Thus, any ontological Markovian theory of quantum mechanics requires …
The five laws of relativistic quantum mechanics, according to Feynman's path integral formulation, are concisely stated and applied to experiments. Reflection diffraction grating experiments for both photons and electrons are analysed, in particular the Davisson-Germer experiment in which the wave-like property of electrons was first established. It is shown how classical, purely spatial, effective wave theories for both photons and electrons are predicted by the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics. The standard Copenhagen interpretation of wave mechanics is critically discussed in …
We generalize the ZX calculus to quantum systems of dimension higher than two. The resulting calculus is sound and universal for quantum mechanics. We define the notion of a mutually unbiased qudit theory and study two particular instances of these theories in detail: qudit stabilizer quantum mechanics and Spekkens-Schreiber toy theory for dits. The calculus allows us to analyze the structure of qudit stabilizer quantum mechanics and provides a geometrical picture of qudit stabilizer theory using D-toruses, which generalizes the Bloch sphere picture for qubit stabilizer quantum mechanics. We a…
Alternative theories to quantum mechanics motivate important fundamental tests of our understanding and descriptions of the smallest physical systems. Here, using spontaneous parametric downconversion as a heralded single-photon source, we place experimental limits on a class of alternative theories, consisting of classical field theories which result in power-dependent normalized correlation functions. In addition, we compare our results with standard quantum mechanical interpretations of our spontaneous parametric downconversion source over an order of magnitude in intensity. Our data match …
In all local realistic theories worked out till now, locality is considered as a basic assumption. Most people in the field consider the inconsistency between local realistic theories and quantum mechanics to be a result of non-local nature of quantum mechanics. In this paper, we derive Bell's inequality for particles with instantaneous interactions, and show that the aforementioned contradiction still exists between quantum mechanics and non-local hidden variable models. Then, we use this non-locality to obtain the GHZ theorem. In what follows, we show that Bacon and Toner's protocol, for the…
The measurement process for hidden-configuration formulations of quantum mechanics is analysed. It is shown how a satisfactory description of quantum measurement can be given in this framework. The unified treatment of hidden-configuration theories, including Bohmian mechanics and Nelson's stochastic mechanics, helps in understanding the true reasons why the problem of quantum measurement can succesfully be solved within such theories.
Recent experiments have shown that certain fluid-mechanical systems, namely oil droplets bouncing on oil films, can mimic a wide range of quantum phenomena, including double-slit interference, quantization of angular momentum and Zeeman splitting. Here I investigate what can be learned from these systems concerning no-go theorems as those of Bell and Kochen-Specker. In particular, a model for the Bell experiment is proposed that includes variables describing a 'background' field or medium. This field mimics the surface wave that accompanies the droplets in the fluid-mechanical experiments. It …
Supersymmetry applied to quantum mechanics has given new insights in various topics of theoretical physics like analytically solvable potentials, WKB approximation or KdV solitons. Duality plays a central role in many supersymmetric theories such as Yang-Mills theories or strings models. We investigate the possible existence of some duality within supersymmetric quantum mechanics.
Replies are given to arguments advanced in this journal that claim to show that it is to nonlinear classical mechanics rather than quantum mechanics that one must look for the physical underpinnings of consciousness.
Three problems stand in the way of deriving classical theories from quantum mechanics: those of realist interpretation, of classical properties and of quantum measurement. Recently, we have identified some tacit assumptions that lie at the roots of these problems. Thus, a realist interpretation is hindered by the assumption that the only properties of quantum systems are values of observables. If one simply postulates the properties to be objective that are uniquely defined by preparation then all difficulties disappear. As for classical properties, the wrong assumption is that there are arbit…
We review a possible framework for (non)linear quantum theories, into which linear quantum mechanics fits as well, and discuss the notion of ``equivalence'' in this setting. Finally, we draw the attention to persisting severe problems of nonlinear quantum theories.
In this investigation, we have suggested a special two-slit experiment which can distinguish between the standard and the Bohmian quantum mechanics. At the first step, we have shown that observable individual predictions obtained from these two theories are inconsistent for a special case. But, at the ensemble level, they are consistent as was expected. Then, as another special case and using selective detection, it is shown that an observable disagreement between the two theories can exist at the ensemble level of particles. This can encourage new efforts for finding other inconsistencies bet…
A non-classical, non-quantum theory, or NCQ, is any fully consistent theory that differs fundamentally from both the corresponding classical and quantum theories, while exhibiting certain features common to both. Such theories are of interest for two primary reasons. Firstly, NCQs arise prominently in semi-classical approximation schemes. Their formal study may yield improved approximation techniques in the near-classical regime. More importantly for the purposes of this note, it may be possible for NCQs to reproduce quantum results over experimentally tested regimes while having a well define…
This chapter, from the Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Physics (Eleanor Knox and Alastair Wilson, eds., 2021), is an overview of the constraints that relativity places on interpretations of quantum theory. It focuses on four main avenues of approach: (i) additional beables theories, which include "hidden-variables" theories and modal interpretations, (ii) dynamical collapse theories, (iii) Everettian, or "many-worlds" interpretations, and (iv) non-realist interpretations, which deny that quantum states represent anything in physical reality independent of considerations of agents and …
The significance of proposals that can predict different results for standard and Bohmian quantum mechanics have been the subject of many discussions over the years. Here, we suggest a particular experiment (a two double-slit experiment) and a special detection process, that we call selective detection, to distinguish between the two theories. Using our suggested experiment, it is shown that the two theories predict different observable results at the individual level for a geometrically symmetric arrangement. However, their predictions are the same at the ensemble level. On the other hand, we…
The aim of the paper is to investigate the characterization of an unambiguous notion of causation linking single space-llike separated events in EPR-Bell frameworks. This issue is investigated in ordinary quantum mechanics, with some hints to no collapse formulations of the theory such as Bohmian mechanics.
What singles out quantum mechanics as the fundamental theory of Nature? Here we study local measurements in generalised probabilistic theories (GPTs) and investigate how observational limitations affect the production of correlations. We find that if only a subset of typical local measurements can be made then all the bipartite correlations produced in a GPT can be simulated to a high degree of accuracy by quantum mechanics. Our result makes use of a generalisation of Dvoretzky's theorem for GPTs. The tripartite correlations can go beyond those exhibited by quantum mechanics, however.
In the quantum logic framework we show that the no-signaling box model is a particular type of tensor product of the logics of single boxes. Such notion of tensor product is too strong to apply in the category of logics of quantum mechanical systems. Consequently, we show that the no-signaling box models cannot be considered as generalizations of quantum mechanical models.
We show that the state-independent violation of inequalities for noncontextual hidden variable theories introduced in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 210401 (2008)] is universal, i.e., occurs for any quantum mechanical system in which noncontextuality is meaningful. We describe a method to obtain state-independent violations for any system of dimension d > 2. This universality proves that, according to quantum mechanics, there are no "classical" states.
Recently, [{arXiv:0810.3134}] is accepted and published. We show that local realistic theories violate separability of $N$-qubit quantum states by a factor of $3^N$. Thus we have a violation factor of 3 when N=1. Realistic theories violate a proposition of a single qubit (a state with two-dimensional space) system, the Bloch sphere machinery of quantum mechanics. Our method uses the ratio of each of the scalar products. The maximal possible value of the scalar product in local realistic theories grows exponentially larger than one in $N$-qubit separable states when the number of qubits increas…
While quantum theory cannot be described by a local hidden variable model, it is nevertheless possible to construct such models that exhibit features commonly associated with quantum mechanics. These models are also used to explore the question of ψ-ontic versus ψ-epistemic theories for quantum mechanics. Spekkens' toy theory is one such model. It arises from classical probabilistic mechanics via a limit on the knowledge an observer may have about the state of a system. The toy theory for the simplest possible underlying system closely resembles stabilizer quantum mechanics, a fragment of quan…
Quantum information and computation may serve as a source of useful axioms and ideas for the quantum logic/quantum structures project of characterizing and classifying types of physical theories, including quantum mechanics and classical mechanics. The axiomatic approach of quantum structures may help isolate what aspects of quantum mechanics are responsible for what aspects of its greater-than-classical information processing power, and whether more general physical theories may escape some common limitations of classical and quantum theories. Also, by by helping us understand how existing qu…
It is shown that the independence of the continuum hypothesis points to the unique definite status of the set of intermediate cardinality: the intermediate set exists only as a subset of continuum. This latent status is a consequence of duality of the members of the set. Due to the structural inhomogeneity of the intermediate set, its complete description falls into several "sections" (theories) with their special main laws, dimensions, and directions, i.e., the complete description of the one-dimensional intermediate set is multidimensional. Quantum mechanics is one of these theories.
Three classes of local hidden-variable models that violate both Bell and Leggett inequalities are presented. The models, however, do not reproduce the quantum mechanical predictions, hence they are experimentally testable. It is concluded that on one hand neither Bell or Leggett inequality fully captures the essential counterintuitiveness of quantum mechanics, while on the other hand the hypothesis of outcome independence and that of locality are uncorrelated.
A discussion of the quantum mechanical use of superposition or entangled states shows that descriptions containing only statements about state vectors and experiments outputs are the most suitable for Quantum Mechanics. In particular, it is shown that statements about the undefined values of physical quantities before measurement can be dropped without changing the predictions of the theory. If we apply these ideas to EPR issues, we find that the concept of non-locality with its 'instantaneous action at a distance' evaporates. Finally, it is argued that usual treatments of philosophical realis…
Intracavity and external third order correlations in the damped nondegenerate parametric oscillator are calculated for quantum mechanics and stochastic electrodynamics (SED), a semiclassical theory. The two theories yield greatly different results, with the correlations of quantum mechanics being cubic in the system's nonlinear coupling constant and those of SED being linear in the same constant. In particular, differences between the two theories are present in at least a mesoscopic regime. They also exist when realistic damping is included. Such differences illustrate distinctions between qu…
Does Quantum Mechanics Breed Larger, More Intricate Quantum Theories? The Case for Experience-Centric Quantum Theory and the Interactome of Quantum Theories
Hidden variables theories for quantum mechanics are usually assumed to satisfy the KS condition. The Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem then shows that these theories are necessarily contextual. But the KS condition can be criticized from an operational viewpoint, which suggests that a weaker condition (MGP) should be adopted in place of it. This leads one to introduce a class of hidden parameters theories in which contextuality can, in principle, be avoided, since the proofs of the Bell-Kochen-Specker theorem break down. A simple model recently provided by the author for an objective interpretation …
In his recent article [arXiv:1604.04950], Adler questions the usefulness of the bound found in our experimental search for genuine effects of hyper-complex quantum mechanics [arXiv:1602.01624]. Our experiment was performed using a black-box (instrumentalist) approach to generalized probabilistic theories; therefore, it does not assume a priori any particular underlying mechanism. From that point of view our experimental results do indeed place meaningful bounds on possible effects of "post-quantum theories", including quaternionic quantum mechanics. In his article, Adler compares our experimen…
This paper deduces universal uncertainty principle in different quantum theories after about one century of proposing uncertainty principle by Heisenberg, i.e., new universal uncertainty principle of any orders of physical quantities in quantum physics, overcomes the difficulty that current quantum computer, quantum communication, quantum control, quantum mechanics and so on theories cannot give exact values of general uncertainty of any orders of physical quantities, further gives all relevant different expressions of the universal uncertainty principle and their applications. In fact, our st…
The axioms of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics lack clear physical meaning. In particular, they say nothing about nonlocality. Yet quantum mechanics is not only nonlocal, it is twice nonlocal: there are nonlocal quantum correlations, and there is the Aharonov-Bohm effect, which implies that an electric or magnetic field h e r e may act on an electron t h e r e. Can we invert the logical hierarchy? That is, can we adopt nonlocality as an axiom for quantum mechanics and derive quantum mechanics from this axiom and an additional axiom of causality? Three versions of these two axioms lead to thre…
The Hamiltonian H specifies the energy levels and the time evolution of a quantum theory. It is an axiom of quantum mechanics that H be Hermitian because Hermiticity guarantees that the energy spectrum is real and that the time evolution is unitary (probability preserving). This paper investigates an alternative way to construct quantum theories in which the conventional requirement of Hermiticity (combined transpose and complex conjugate) is replaced by the more physically transparent condition of space-time reflection (PT) symmetry. It is shown that if the PT symmetry of a Hamiltonian H is n…
Nonlinear modifications of quantum mechanics have a troubled history. They were initially studied for many promising reasons: resolving the measurement problem, testing the limits of standard quantum mechanics, and reconciling it with gravity. Two results substantially undermined the credibility of non-linear theories. Some have been experimentally refuted, and more importantly, all deterministic non-linear theories can be used for superluminal communication. However, these results are unconvincing because they overlook the fact that the distribution of measurement results predicted by non-lin…
A non-relativistic quantum mechanical theory is proposed that combines elements of Bohmian mechanics and of Everett's "many-worlds" interpretation. The resulting theory has the advantage of resolving known issues of both theories, as well as those of standard quantum mechanics. It has a clear ontology and a set of precisely defined postulates from where the predictions of standard quantum mechanics can be derived. Most importantly, the Born rule can be derived by straightforward application of the Laplacian rule, without reliance on a "quantum equilibrium hypothesis" that is crucial for Bohmia…
Given an arbitrary statistical theory, different from quantum mechanics, how to decide which are the nonclassical correlations? We present a formal framework which allows for a definition of nonclassical correlations in such theories, alternative to the current one. This enables one to formulate extrapolations of some important quantum mechanical features via adequate extensions of reciprocal maps relating states of a system with states of its subsystems. These extended maps permit one to generalize i) separability measures to any arbitrary statistical model as well as ii) previous entanglemen…
Spontaneous collapse models and Bohmian mechanics are two different solutions to the measurement problem plaguing orthodox quantum mechanics. They have, a priori nothing in common. At a formal level, collapse models add a non-linear noise term to the Schrödinger equation, and extract definite measurement outcomes either from the wave function (e.g. mass density ontology) or the noise itself (flash ontology). Bohmian mechanics keeps the Schrödinger equation intact but uses the wave function to guide particles (or fields), which comprise the primitive ontology. Collapse models modify the predict…
Time-symmetric interpretations of quantum theory are often presented as featuring "retrocausal" effects in addition to the usual forward notion of causation. This paper examines the ontological implications of certain timesymmetric theories, and finds that no dynamical notion of causation applies to them, either forward or backward. It is concluded that such theories actually describe a static picture, in which the notion of causation is relegated to a descriptor of static relationships among events. In addition, these theories lead to an epistemic rather than ontologically referring, realist …
Several recent arguments purport to show that there can be no relativistic, quantum-mechanical theory of localizable particles and, thus, that relativity and quantum mechanics can be reconciled only in the context of quantum field theory. We point out some loopholes in the existing arguments, and we provide two no-go theorems to close these loopholes. However, even with these loopholes closed, it does not yet follow that relativity plus quantum mechanics exclusively requires a field ontology, since relativistic quantum field theory itself might permit an ontology of localizable particles super…
To date, there has been no experimental evidence that invalidates quantum theory. Yet it may only be an effective description of the world, in the same way that classical physics is an effective description of the quantum world. We ask whether there exists an operationally-defined theory superseding quantum theory, but which reduces to it via a decoherence-like mechanism. We prove that no such post-quantum theory exists if it is demanded that it satisfy two natural physical principles: causality and purification. Causality formalises the statement that information propagates from present to fu…
A central theme in current work in quantum information and quantum foundations is to see quantum mechanics as occupying one point in a space of possible theories, and to use this perspective to understand the special features and properties which single it out, and the possibilities for alternative theories. Two formalisms which have been used in this context are operational theories, and categorical quantum mechanics. The aim of the present paper is to establish strong connections between these two formalisms. We show how models of categorical quantum mechanics have representations as operati…
There have lately been a variety of attempts to connect, or even explain, if not in fact, reduce human consciousness to quantum mechanical processes. Such attempts tend to draw a sharp and fundamental distinction between the role of consciousness in classical mechanics, and on the other hand, in quantum mechanics, with an insistence on the assumed exceptional character of the latter. What is strangely missed, however, is the role of human consciousness as such in the very discovery or creation of both of these physical theories. And this a priori role is far more important than all the possibl…
In all local realistic theories worked out till now, locality is considered as a basic assumption. Most people in the field consider the inconsistency between local realistic theories and quantum mechanics to be a result of non-local nature of quantum mechanics. In this Paper, we derive the Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger type theorem for particles with instantaneous (non-local) interactions at the hidden-variable level. Then, we show that the previous contradiction still exists between quantum mechanics and non-local hidden variable models.
I discuss three proposed experiments that could in principle locate the boundary between the classical and quantum worlds, as well as distinguish the Hamiltonian theory presented in the first paper of this series from the spontaneous-collapse theories.
In Ref. [1] one of the authors proposed postulates for axiomatizing Quantum Mechanics as a "fair operational framework", namely regarding the theory as a set of rules that allow the experimenter to predict future events on the basis of suitable tests, having local control and low experimental complexity. In addition to causality, the following postulates have been considered: PFAITH (existence of a pure preparationally faithful state), and FAITHE (existence of a faithful effect). These postulates have exhibited an unexpected theoretical power, excluding all known nonquantum probabilistic theor…
Conventional quantum mechanics with a complex Hilbert space and the Born Rule is derived from five axioms describing properties of probability distributions for the outcome of measurements. Axioms I,II,III are common to quantum mechanics and hidden variable theories. Axiom IV recognizes a phenomenon, first noted by Turing and von Neumann, in which the increase in entropy resulting from a measurement is reduced by a suitable intermediate measurement. This is shown to be impossible for local hidden variable theories. Axiom IV, together with the first three, almost suffice to deduce the conventio…
We present a critique of the many-world interpretation of quantum mechanics, based on different ``pictures'' that describe the time evolution of an isolated quantum system. Without an externally imposed frame to restrict these possible pictures, the theory cannot yield non-trivial interpretational statements. This is analogous to Goodman's famous ``grue-bleen'' problem of language and induction. Using a general framework applicable to many kinds of dynamical theories, we try to identify the kind of additional structure (if any) required for the meaningful interpretation of a theory. We find th…
