arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Alexei Grinbaum.
Different observers do not have to agree on how they identify a quantum system. We explore a condition based on algorithmic complexity that allows a system to be described as an objective "element of reality". We also suggest an experimental test of the hypothesis that any system, even much smaller than a human being, can be a quantum mechanical observer.
The argument from naturalness is widely employed in contemporary quantum field theory. Essentially a formalized aesthetic criterion, it received a meaning in the debate on the Higgs mechanism, which goes beyond aesthetics. We follow the history of technical definitions of fine tuning at the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking. It is argued that they give rise to a special interpretation of probability, which we call Gedankenfrequency. By extension of its original meaning, the argument from naturalness is used to compare different models beyond the Standard Model. We show that in this case naturalness cannot be defined objectively. Rather, it functions as socio-historical heuristics in particle physics and it contributes to the advent of a probabilistic version of Popper's falsificationism.
We start by remarks on the scientific and societal context of today's theoretical physics. Major classes of models for physics to be explored at the LHC are then reviewed. This leads us to propose an LHC timeline and a list of potential effects on theoretical physics and the society. We then explore three conceptual questions connected with the LHC physics: symmetry (and symmetry breaking), effective field theory, and fine tuning.
What belongs to quantum theory is no more than what is needed for its derivation. We argue for an approach focusing on reconstruction rather than interpretation of quantum mechanics and analyze several examples of reconstruction. We submit that reconstruction advances our understanding of quantum theory irrespective of one's ontological stance.
Quantum logical axiomatic systems for quantum theory usually include a postulate that a lattice under consideration is orthomodular. We propose a derivation of orthomodularity from an information-theoretic axiom. This provides conceptual clarity and removes a long-standing puzzle about the meaning of orthomodularity.
We propose a system of information-theoretic axioms from which we derive the formalism of quantum theory. Part I is devoted to the conceptual foundations of the information-theoretic approach. We argue that this approach belongs to the epistemological framework depicted as a loop of existences. In Part II we derive the quantum formalism from information-theoretic axioms and we analyze the twofold role of observer as physical system and as informational agent. Quantum logical techniques are then introduced, and we prove theorems reconstructing elements of the formalism. In Part III, we introduce the formalism of C*-algebras and give it an information theoretic interpretation. We analyze the conceptual underpinnings of the theory of modular automorphisms and we give an information-theoretic justification for the emergence of time in the algebraic approach. We conclude by giving a list of open questions, including topics in cognitive science, decision theory, and information technology.
Information-theoretic derivations of the formalism of quantum theory have recently attracted much attention. We analyze the axioms underlying a few such derivations and propose a conceptual framework in which, by combining several approaches, one can retrieve more of the conventional quantum formalism.