The Axiomatisation of Physics

Abstract

Analysing Quantum Measurement requires analysing the physics of amplification since amplification of phenomena from one scale to another scale is essential to measurement. There still remains the task of working this into an axiomatic logical structure, what should be the foundational status of the concepts of measurement and probability. We argue that the concept of physical probability is a multi-scale phenomenon and as such, can be explicitly defined in terms of more fundamental physical concepts. Thus Quantum Mechanics can be given a logically unexceptionable axiomatisation. We introduce a new definition of macroscopic observable which implements Bohr's insight that the observables of a measurement apparatus are classical in nature. In particular, we obtain the usual non-abelian observables as limits of abelian, classical, observables. This is the essential step in Hilbert's Sixth Problem.