Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2019
Volume 64, Number 2
Monday–Friday, March 4–8, 2019; Boston, Massachusetts
Session C69: Foundations of Physics Debate: How Should We Interpret the Formalism of Quantum Mechanics?Invited
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Sponsoring Units: FHP Chair: Paul Cadden-Zimansky, Bard College Room: BCEC 052A |
Monday, March 4, 2019 2:30PM - 3:06PM |
C69.00001: The Universe as a Quantum Computer Invited Speaker: Seth Lloyd Every elementary particle carries with it bits of information that describe its type, charge, mass, position, and velocity. Every time two or more particles interact, that information is transformed and processed. The universe computes; and it computes in a way that is governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. The computational nature of the universe has nontrivial implications for its history, including how complex structures are generated, and the future of these structures. This talk discusses the implications of quantum information processing for the history and future of the universe. |
Monday, March 4, 2019 3:06PM - 3:42PM |
C69.00002: Does This Ontological Commitment Make Me Look Fat? A Defense of Many-Worlds Invited Speaker: Sean Carroll The Everettian or Many-Worlds formulation of quantum mechanics features the simplest and most straightforward set of concepts and equations, but comes at the cost of the non-uniqueness of our observed part of reality. I will give a brief introduction to this approach, and discuss both a set of misguided objections and some true challenges. Among the true challenges are the issue of structure (how do complicated aspects of observed reality emerge from an austere vector in Hilbert space?) and probability (why are probabilities given by amplitudes squared if every outcome happens on some branch of the wave function?). |
Monday, March 4, 2019 3:42PM - 4:18PM |
C69.00003: The Relational Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics Invited Speaker: Carlo Rovelli The Relation Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics is a refinement of textbook "Copenhagen" quantum mechanics, which is receiving increasing attention. It does not assume an absolute split of the world into "quantum system" and "classical observer"; it rather assumes that any physical system can play either role. It avoids the "many worlds" of some Everettian interpretations, the un-observable entities of Bomhiam interpretations, as well as the un-observed dynamical collapse of physical-collapse theories. The prices to pay is to accept that all physical quantities are relational, in the sense in which velocity is relational in classical mechanics: it expresses a relation between a system another system. I shall illustrate this understanding of quantum theory in detail and compare it with different and similar ways of viewing quantum mechanics. |
Monday, March 4, 2019 4:18PM - 4:54PM |
C69.00004: Quantum theory of the classical: quantum jumps, Born's Rule and objective classical reality via quantum Darwinism Invited Speaker: Wojciech Zurek The emergence of the classical from the quantum substrate is a long-standing conundrum. I will describe three insights into the transition from quantum to classical based on recognition of the role of the environment [1]. I will first derive preferred sets of states that define what exists -- our everyday classical reality. They arise as a result of breaking of the unitary symmetry of the Hilbert space resulting from the conflict between linearity of quantum evolutions and nonlinearities inherent in the process of amplification -- of replicating information. This accounts for quantum jumps and the emergence of the preferred pointer states consistent with those obtained via environment-induced superselection, (einselection), but is accomplished without the usual tools of decoherence. Pointer states determine what can happen -- define events -- without appealing to probabilities. Therefore, Born’s Rule can now be deduced from entanglement-assisted invariance, or envariance -- a symmetry of entangled quantum states. Envariance also provides new basis for statistical physics, allowing one to deduce thermodynamics from symmetries of entanglement -- that is, without the need for ensembles [2]. Information flows accompanying decoherence explain how the perception of objective classical reality arises from the quantum substrate: the effective amplification they represent accounts for the objective existence of the einselected states of macroscopic quantum systems through redundancy of their records in the environment -- through quantum Darwinism [1]. |
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