Quantum Theory

Strange Entanglements: Buddhism and Quantum Theory in Contemporary Nonfiction

by Sean Miller

This essay is part of a collection entitled Encountering Buddhism in Twentieth-Century British and American Literature, edited by Lawrence Normand and Alison Winch, forthcoming from Continuum Press in 2013.

Taking the publication of The Tao of Physics in 1975 as its starting point, the chapter examines a particular... more Taking the publication of The Tao of Physics in 1975 as its starting point, the chapter examines a particular imaginative encounter that has enjoyed a central place in Buddhism and Science discourse over the course of the past four decades: the encounter of Buddhism with quantum theory. The chapter focuses on quantum theory because, in many respects, its inaccessibility as a mathematical abstraction invites an imaginative appropriation where the microcosm readily becomes envisioned as an alien and remote space, teeming with oddities such as quantum foam, wave-particle duality, and nonlocal entanglement. In the transit from mathematical formalism to ordinary language, these conceits tend to take on a surplus of meaning supplemental to their relevance within the proscribed context of the theory. Quantum theory promises a corollary to Buddhism pregnant with possibilities, in large part, due to the suggestiveness of juxtaposing two imagined interior spaces, the ‘internal world’ of the mind within Buddhism and the microcosm, imagined also as a world internal to the universe itself. Buddhism and Popular Physics, as a subgenre, also presents a Buddhism rendered accessible, in large part, by stripping it of any sustained account of its socio-historical contexts, its mythologies, its rituals, and its doctrinal heterodoxies.

A stronger Bell argument for quantum non-locality

by Paul Naeger

pre-print

It is widely accepted that the violation of Bell inequalities excludes local theories of the quantum realm. In this... more It is widely accepted that the violation of Bell inequalities excludes local theories of the quantum realm. In this paper I present a stronger Bell argument which even forbids certain non-local theories. The remaining non-local theories, which can violate Bell inequalities, are characterised by the fact that at least one of the outcomes in some sense probabilistically depends both on its distant as well as on its local parameter. While this is not to say that parameter dependence in the usual sense necessarily holds, it shows that the received analysis of quantum non-locality as “outcome dependence or parameter dependence” is deeply misleading about what the violation of Bell inequalities implies.

Contextual-value approach to the generalized measurement of observables

by Justin Dressel

Physical Review A 85, 022123 (2012).

We present a detailed motivation for and definition of the contextual values of an observable, which were introduced... more We present a detailed motivation for and definition of the contextual values of an observable, which were introduced by Dressel et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 240401 (2010)]. The theory of contextual values is a principled approach to the generalized measurement of observables. It extends the well-established theory of generalized state measurements by bridging the gap between partial state collapse and the observables that represent physically relevant information about the system. To emphasize the general utility of the concept, we first construct the full theory of contextual values within an operational formulation of classical probability theory, paying special attention to observable construction, detector coupling, generalized measurement, and measurement disturbance. We then extend the results to quantum probability theory built as a superstructure on the classical theory, pointing out both the classical correspondences to and the full quantum generalizations of both Lüder's rule and the Aharonov-Bergmann-Lebowitz rule in the process. As such, our treatment doubles as a self-contained pedagogical introduction to the essential components of the operational formulations for both classical and quantum probability theory. We find in both cases that the contextual values of a system observable form a generalized spectrum that is associated with the independent outcomes of a partially correlated and generally ambiguous detector; the eigenvalues are a special case when the detector is perfectly correlated and unambiguous. To illustrate the approach, we apply the technique to both a classical example of marble color detection and a quantum example of polarization detection. For the quantum example we detail two devices: Fresnel reflection from a glass coverslip, and continuous beam displacement from a calcite crystal. We also analyze the three-box paradox to demonstrate that no negative probabilities are necessary in its analysis. Finally, we provide a derivation of the quantum weak value as a limit point of a pre- and postselected conditioned average and provide sufficient conditions for the derivation to hold.

Significance of the imaginary part of the weak value

by Justin Dressel

Phys. Rev. A 85, 012107 (2012).

Unlike the real part of the generalized weak value of an observable, which can in a restricted sense be operationally... more Unlike the real part of the generalized weak value of an observable, which can in a restricted sense be operationally interpreted as an idealized conditioned average of that observable in the limit of zero measurement disturbance, the imaginary part of the generalized weak value does not provide information pertaining to the observable being measured. What it does provide is direct information about how the initial state would be unitarily disturbed by the observable operator. Specifically, we provide an operational interpretation for the imaginary part of the generalized weak value as the logarithmic directional derivative of the post-selection probability along the unitary flow generated by the action of the observable operator. To obtain this interpretation, we revisit the standard von Neumann measurement protocol for obtaining the real and imaginary parts of the weak value and solve it exactly for arbitrary initial states and post-selections using the quantum operations formalism, which allows us to understand in detail how each part of the generalized weak value arises in the linear response regime. We also provide exact treatments of qubit measurements and Gaussian detectors as illustrative special cases, and show that the measurement disturbance from a Gaussian detector is purely decohering in the Lindblad sense, which allows the shifts for a Gaussian detector to be completely understood for any coupling strength in terms of a single complex weak value that involves the decohered initial state.

On quantum jumps, events, and spontaneous localization models

by Arkadiusz Jadczyk

Fisica Buddhista di Fritjof Capra

by Pietro Piro

Titolo originale castellano: Fisica budista, in S.Kumar (ed.), Para Schumacher, H. Blume Ediciones, Madrid 1981, pp. 145-159.

Articolo del 1980 di F. Capra che utilizza le categorie del pensiero orientale per rinforzare la critica alla società... more Articolo del 1980 di F. Capra che utilizza le categorie del pensiero orientale per rinforzare la critica alla società meccanicistica e scientista dell'Occidente, proposto in occasione dell'edizione di The Schumacher Lectures, incontro organizzato dalla Schumacher Society per promuovere e incrementare il dibattito intorno al lascito intellettuale dell'economista Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, detto Fritz (Bonn, 16 agosto 1911 – Svizzera, 4 settembre 1977), un influente filosofo ed economista che svolse gran parte della sua attività come consulente economico del National Coal Board in Gran Bretagna, conosciuto soprattutto per la sua critica alle economie occidentali e per le sue proposte per l'adozione di tecnologie umane, decentralizzate ed appropriate.

A general approach to quantum dynamics using a variational master equation: Application to phonon-damped Rabi rotations in quantum dots

by Nike Dattani

2011 - Published in Physical Review B Rapid Communications

Here Comes Everything: The Promise of Object-Oriented Ontology

by Tim Morton

Published in Qui Parle 19.2

An essay about the significance of object-oriented ontology (OOO), in particular for thinking about ecology. An essay about the significance of object-oriented ontology (OOO), in particular for thinking about ecology.

God Theory.

by Quinn Foerch

(2011b) An Introduction to Radical Minimalism I: On Merge and Transfer

by Diego Gabriel Krivochen

Published in IBERIA n°3/2 with minor changes. A programmatic paper on what we have called Radical Minimalism,... more Published in IBERIA n°3/2 with minor changes. A programmatic paper on what we have called Radical Minimalism, following the track of our previous works (Krivochen, 2010a, b, c, d, 2011). We would like to specially thank Cedric Boeckx for his comments, Phoevos Panagiotidis for comments and objections and Peter Kosta and Mike Putnam for thorough "reviews" and comments. All errors, needless to say, are entirely our own.

(2011c) An Introduction to Radical Minimalism II: Internal Merge Beyond Explanatory Adequacy

by Diego Gabriel Krivochen

MAJOR CHANGES AND CORRECTIONS. Please replace older versions. Comments welcomed. Thanks to Cedric Boeckx, Phoevos Panagiotidis, Antonio Fábregas and David Adger for valuable comments that helped in the development of the paper. Special thanks to Michal Starke for corrections as regards Nanosyntax. All mistakes are, of course, completely our responsibility.

In this paper, which we conceive of as an extension of Krivochen (2011b), we will analyze the ultimate motivations of... more In this paper, which we conceive of as an extension of Krivochen (2011b), we will analyze the ultimate motivations of internal merge, as part of our attempt to develop a “Radical Theory for the Minimalist Program”. External Merge and Transfer have already been analyzed beyond explanatory adequacy (see Chomsky, 2001) in our previous paper. Beyond Explanatory Adequacy is a notion we will resignify here as aiming to an understanding of the ultimate computational-biological motivations of phenomena, in terms of interface requirements in the context of a massively modular mind-brain (the “third factor” in Chomsky, 2005b).

Determinism, Indeterminism, Quantum Theory and Divine Action

by Caner Taslaman

Tanrı- Evren İlişkisi Açısından Determinizm, İndeterminizm ve Kuantum Teorisi

by Caner Taslaman

A New Application of the Interaction Picture To Calculate Reactive Scattering Matrix Elements

by Michael MacLachlan

"Between-Two: On the Borderline of Being & Time"

by Gregory Nixon

*Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research* 2(2), March, 2011, pp. 150-164.

The purpose of this review article is to attempt to come to grips with the elusive vision of Gordon Globus, especially... more The purpose of this review article is to attempt to come to grips with the elusive vision of Gordon Globus, especially as revealed in this, his latest book. However, one can only grip that which is tangible and solid and Globus’s marriage of Heideggerian anti-concepts and “quantum neurophilosophy” seems purposefully to evade solidity or grasp. This slippery anti-metaphysics is sometimes a curse for the reader seeking imagistic or conceptual clarity, but, on the other hand, it is also the blessing that allows Globus to go far beyond (or deep within) the usual narrative explanations at the frontiers of physics, even that of the quantum variety.

An Absolute Phase Space for the Physicality of Matter

by John Valentine

Published as: John S. Valentine, AIP Conf. Proc. 1316, 349 (2010), DOI:10.1063/1.3536446, at http://link.aip.org/link/?APCPCS/1316/349/1
Oral Presentation: http://johnvalentine.co.uk/po8.php?art=art100713
Website containing more descriptive articles: http://johnvalentine.co.uk/po8.php
Informal Summary: We create the physicality of matter using new foundations, which can be used as basis for many different legacy pictures. Examples are shown and implications discussed.

We define an abstract and absolute phase space for intrinsic sub-quantum wave states, each of three axes mapping... more We define an abstract and absolute phase space for intrinsic sub-quantum wave states, each of three axes mapping directly to a duality having fundamental ontological basis. Many aspects of quantum physics emerge from the interaction algebra and a model deduced from principles of ‘unique solvability’ and ‘identifiable entity’, and we reconstruct previously abstract fundamental principles and phenomena from these new foundations. The physical model defines two-part continuous bosonic waves in the APS, and four-part fermions as snapshots of those waves when simple conditions are met. To illustrate the scheme, we provide examples of slit experiments and of QCD, and suggest approaches for other applications.

"Skrbina's *Mind that Abides: Panpsychism in the New Millennium*"

by Gregory Nixon

Book Review: *Journal of Consciousness Studies* 16(9), Sept 2009. 116-121.

Is the great god Pan reborn? For a while there, it seemed every intellectual movement began with the prefix ‘post’,... more Is the great god Pan reborn? For a while there, it seemed every intellectual movement began with the prefix ‘post’, implying non-totality, but now there are indications that ‘pan’ (all) is returning to provide another answer to one of the most basic of ontological questions: What is the relationship of mind to matter? In this important book with 17 different authors, panpsychism is given its due.