The prince and the pauper. A quantum paradox of Hilbert-space fundamentalism
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2023
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| _version_ | 1866916612484890624 |
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| author | Stoica, Ovidiu Cristinel |
| author_facet | Stoica, Ovidiu Cristinel |
| contents | The quantum world is described by a unit vector in the Hilbert space and the Hamiltonian. Do these abstract basis-independent objects give a complete description of the physical world, or should we include observables like positions and momenta and the decomposition into subsystems? According to "Hilbert-space fundamentalism" they give a complete description, and all other features of the physical world emerge from them (Carroll, arXiv:2103.09780). Here I will give a concrete refutation of this thesis based on the symmetries of the theory of quantum measurements. These results show that even if a tensor product structure is assumed along with the unit vector and the Hamiltonian, concrete physically distinct worlds can be described by the same structures. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_15090 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The prince and the pauper. A quantum paradox of Hilbert-space fundamentalism Stoica, Ovidiu Cristinel Quantum Physics History and Philosophy of Physics The quantum world is described by a unit vector in the Hilbert space and the Hamiltonian. Do these abstract basis-independent objects give a complete description of the physical world, or should we include observables like positions and momenta and the decomposition into subsystems? According to "Hilbert-space fundamentalism" they give a complete description, and all other features of the physical world emerge from them (Carroll, arXiv:2103.09780). Here I will give a concrete refutation of this thesis based on the symmetries of the theory of quantum measurements. These results show that even if a tensor product structure is assumed along with the unit vector and the Hamiltonian, concrete physically distinct worlds can be described by the same structures. |
| title | The prince and the pauper. A quantum paradox of Hilbert-space fundamentalism |
| topic | Quantum Physics History and Philosophy of Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.15090 |