Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Flavio Del Santo

Publications and source records attributed to Flavio Del Santo.

43 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2019

Karl Popper's Forgotten Role in the Quantum Debate at the Edge between Philosophy and Physics in 1950s and 1960s

It is not very well known that the philosopher Karl Popper has been one of the foremost critics of the orthodox interpretation of quantum physics for about six decades. This paper reconstructs in detail most of Popper's activities on foundations of quantum mechanics (FQM) in the period of 1950s and 1960s, when his involvement in the community of quantum physicists became extensive and quite influential. Thanks to unpublished documents and correspondence, it is now possible to shed new light on Popper's central - though neglected - role in this "thought collective" of physicists concerned with FQM, and on the intellectual relationships that Popper established in this context with some of the protagonists of the debate over quantum physics (such as David Bohm, Alfed Landé and Henry Margenau, among many others). Foundations of quantum mechanics represented in those years also the initial ground for the embittering controversy between Popper and perhaps his most notable former student, Paul Feyerabend. I present here novel elements to further understand the origin of their troubled relationship.

physics.hist-ph↗
arXiv2019

Experimental two-way communication with one photon

Superposition of two or more states is one of the fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics and provides the basis for several advantages quantum information processing offers. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate that quantum superposition permits two-way communication between two distant parties that can exchange only one particle once, an impossible task in classical physics. This is achieved by preparing a single photon in a coherent superposition of the two parties' locations. Furthermore, we show that this concept allows the parties to perform secure quantum communication, where the transmitted bits and even the direction of communication remain private. These important features can lead to the development of new quantum communication schemes, which are simultaneously secure and resource-efficient.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2019

Comment on Healey's "Quantum Theory and the Limits of Objectivity"

In this comment we critically review an argument against the existence of objective physical outcomes, recently proposed by R. Healey [Foundations of Physics, 48(11), 1568-1589]. We show that his gedankenexperiment, based on a combination of "Wigner's friend" scenarios and Bell's inequalities, suffers from the main criticism, that the computed correlation functions entering the Bell's inequality are in principle experimentally inaccessible, and hence the author's claim is not verifiable. We discuss perspectives for fixing that by adapting the proposed protocol and show that this, however, makes Healey's argument virtually equivalent to other previous, similar proposals that he explicitly criticises.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2018

Two-way communication with a single quantum particle

In this letter we show that communication when restricted to a single information carrier (i.e. single particle) and finite speed of propagation is fundamentally limited for classical systems. On the other hand, quantum systems can surpass this limitation. We show that communication bounded to the exchange of a single quantum particle (in superposition of different spatial locations) can result in "two-way signaling" which is impossible in classical physics. We quantify the discrepancy between classical and quantum scenarios by the probability of winning a game played by distant players. We generalize our result to an arbitrary number of parties and we show that the probability of success is asymptotically decreasing to zero as the number of parties grows, for all classical strategies. In contrast, quantum strategy allows players to win the game with certainty.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2017

Genesis of Karl Popper's EPR-Like Experiment and its Resonance amongst the Physics Community in the 1980s

I present the reconstruction of the involvement of Karl Popper in the community of physicists concerned with foundations of quantum mechanics, in the 1980s. At that time Popper gave active contribution to the research in physics, of which the most significant is a new version of the EPR thought experiment, alleged to test different interpretations of quantum mechanics. The genesis of such an experiment is reconstructed in detail, and an unpublished letter by Popper is reproduced in the present paper to show that he formulated his thought experiment already two years before its first publication in 1982. The debate stimulated by the proposed experiment as well as Popper's role in the physics community throughout 1980s is here analysed in detail by means of personal correspondence and publications.

physics.hist-ph↗
arXiv2016

The origins of the research on the foundations of quantum mechanics (and other critical activities) in italy during the 1970s

We present a reconstruction of the studies on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (FQM) carried out in Italy at the turn of the 1960s. Actually, they preceded the revival of the interest of the American physicists towards the FQM around mid-1970s, recently reconstructed by David Kaiser in a book of 2011. An element common to both cases is the role played by the young generation, even though the respective motivations were quite different. In the US they reacted to research cuts after the war in Vietnam, and were inspired by the New Age mood. In Italy the dissatisfaction of the young generations was rooted in the student protests of 1968 and the subsequent labour and social fights, which challenged the role of scientists. The young generations of physicists searched for new scientific approaches and challenged their own scientific knowledge and role. The criticism to the FQM and the perspectives of submitting them to experimental tests were perceived as an innovative research field and this attitude was directly linked to the search for an innovative and radical approach in the history of science. All these initiatives gave rise to booming activity throughout the 1970s, contributing to influence the scientific attitude and the teaching approach.

physics.hist-ph↗