1,935 research outputs found
What is quantum in quantum randomness?
It is often said that quantum and classical randomness are of different
nature, the former being ontological and the latter epistemological. However,
so far the question of "What is quantum in quantum randomness", i.e. what is
the impact of quantization and discreteness on the nature of randomness,
remains to answer. In a first part, we explicit the differences between quantum
and classical randomness within a recently proposed ontology for quantum
mechanics based on contextual objectivity. In this view, quantum randomness is
the result of contextuality and quantization. We show that this approach
strongly impacts the purposes of quantum theory as well as its areas of
application. In particular, it challenges current programs inspired by
classical reductionism, aiming at the emergence of the classical world from a
large number of quantum systems. In a second part, we analyze quantum physics
and thermodynamics as theories of randomness, unveiling their mutual
influences. We finally consider new technological applications of quantum
randomness opened in the emerging field of quantum thermodynamics.Comment: This article will appear in Philosophical Transaction A, following
the Royal Society Symposium "Foundations of quantum mechanics and their
impact on Contemporary Society
A Stronger Theorem Against Macro-realism
Macro-realism is the position that certain "macroscopic" observables must
always possess definite values: e.g. the table is in some definite position,
even if we don't know what that is precisely. The traditional understanding is
that by assuming macro-realism one can derive the Leggett-Garg inequalities,
which constrain the possible statistics from certain experiments. Since quantum
experiments can violate the Leggett-Garg inequalities, this is taken to rule
out the possibility of macro-realism in a quantum universe. However, recent
analyses have exposed loopholes in the Leggett-Garg argument, which allow many
types of macro-realism to be compatible with quantum theory and hence violation
of the Leggett-Garg inequalities. This paper takes a different approach to
ruling out macro-realism and the result is a no-go theorem for macro-realism in
quantum theory that is stronger than the Leggett-Garg argument. This approach
uses the framework of ontological models: an elegant way to reason about
foundational issues in quantum theory which has successfully produced many
other recent results, such as the PBR theorem.Comment: Accepted journal version. 10 + 7 pages, 1 figur
Realism about the Wave Function
A century after the discovery of quantum mechanics, the meaning of quantum
mechanics still remains elusive. This is largely due to the puzzling nature of
the wave function, the central object in quantum mechanics. If we are realists
about quantum mechanics, how should we understand the wave function? What does
it represent? What is its physical meaning? Answering these questions would
improve our understanding of what it means to be a realist about quantum
mechanics. In this survey article, I review and compare several realist
interpretations of the wave function. They fall into three categories:
ontological interpretations, nomological interpretations, and the \emph{sui
generis} interpretation. For simplicity, I will focus on non-relativistic
quantum mechanics.Comment: Penultimate version for Philosophy Compas
Current and Future Challenges in Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
Knowledge Representation and Reasoning is a central, longstanding, and active
area of Artificial Intelligence. Over the years it has evolved significantly;
more recently it has been challenged and complemented by research in areas such
as machine learning and reasoning under uncertainty. In July 2022 a Dagstuhl
Perspectives workshop was held on Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. The
goal of the workshop was to describe the state of the art in the field,
including its relation with other areas, its shortcomings and strengths,
together with recommendations for future progress. We developed this manifesto
based on the presentations, panels, working groups, and discussions that took
place at the Dagstuhl Workshop. It is a declaration of our views on Knowledge
Representation: its origins, goals, milestones, and current foci; its relation
to other disciplines, especially to Artificial Intelligence; and on its
challenges, along with key priorities for the next decade
Recommended from our members
Neurons and symbols: a manifesto
We discuss the purpose of neural-symbolic integration including its principles, mechanisms and applications. We outline a cognitive computational model for neural-symbolic integration, position the model in the broader context of multi-agent systems, machine learning and automated reasoning, and list some of the challenges for the area of
neural-symbolic computation to achieve the promise of effective integration of robust learning and expressive reasoning under uncertainty
The Minimal Modal Interpretation of Quantum Theory
We introduce a realist, unextravagant interpretation of quantum theory that
builds on the existing physical structure of the theory and allows experiments
to have definite outcomes, but leaves the theory's basic dynamical content
essentially intact. Much as classical systems have specific states that evolve
along definite trajectories through configuration spaces, the traditional
formulation of quantum theory asserts that closed quantum systems have specific
states that evolve unitarily along definite trajectories through Hilbert
spaces, and our interpretation extends this intuitive picture of states and
Hilbert-space trajectories to the case of open quantum systems as well. We
provide independent justification for the partial-trace operation for density
matrices, reformulate wave-function collapse in terms of an underlying
interpolating dynamics, derive the Born rule from deeper principles, resolve
several open questions regarding ontological stability and dynamics, address a
number of familiar no-go theorems, and argue that our interpretation is
ultimately compatible with Lorentz invariance. Along the way, we also
investigate a number of unexplored features of quantum theory, including an
interesting geometrical structure---which we call subsystem space---that we
believe merits further study. We include an appendix that briefly reviews the
traditional Copenhagen interpretation and the measurement problem of quantum
theory, as well as the instrumentalist approach and a collection of
foundational theorems not otherwise discussed in the main text.Comment: 73 pages + references, 9 figures; cosmetic changes, added figure,
updated references, generalized conditional probabilities with attendant
changes to the sections on the EPR-Bohm thought experiment and Lorentz
invariance; for a concise summary, see the companion letter at
arXiv:1405.675
The Role of Normware in Trustworthy and Explainable AI
For being potentially destructive, in practice incomprehensible and for the
most unintelligible, contemporary technology is setting high challenges on our
society. New conception methods are urgently required. Reorganizing ideas and
discussions presented in AI and related fields, this position paper aims to
highlight the importance of normware--that is, computational artifacts
specifying norms--with respect to these issues, and argues for its
irreducibility with respect to software by making explicit its neglected
ecological dimension in the decision-making cycle
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