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Randomness in Classical Mechanics and Quantum Mechanics
The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics assumes the existence of
the classical deterministic Newtonian world. We argue that in fact the Newton
determinism in classical world does not hold and in classical mechanics there
is fundamental and irreducible randomness. The classical Newtonian trajectory
does not have a direct physical meaning since arbitrary real numbers are not
observable. There are classical uncertainty relations, i.e. the uncertainty
(errors of observation) in the determination of coordinate and momentum is
always positive (non zero).
A "functional" formulation of classical mechanics was suggested. The
fundamental equation of the microscopic dynamics in the functional approach is
not the Newton equation but the Liouville equation for the distribution
function of the single particle. Solutions of the Liouville equation have the
property of delocalization which accounts for irreversibility. The Newton
equation in this approach appears as an approximate equation describing the
dynamics of the average values of the position and momenta for not too long
time intervals. Corrections to the Newton trajectories are computed. An
interpretation of quantum mechanics is attempted in which both classical and
quantum mechanics contain fundamental randomness. Instead of an ensemble of
events one introduces an ensemble of observers.Comment: 12 pages, Late
Comment on "The Free Will Theorem"
In a recent paper [quant-ph/0604079], Conway and Kochen claim to have
established that theories of the GRW type, i.e., of spontaneous wave function
collapse, cannot be made relativistic. On the other hand, relativistic GRW-type
theories have already been presented, in my recent paper [quant-ph/0406094] and
by Dowker and Henson [J. Statist. Phys. 115: 1327 (2004), quant-ph/0209051].
Here, I elucidate why these are not excluded by the arguments of Conway and
Kochen.Comment: 10 pages LaTeX, no figures; v2 minor improvement
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