This paper presents a new `partitional’ approach to understanding or interpreting standard quantum mechanics (QM). The thesis is that the mathematics (not the physics) of QM is the Hilbert space version of the math of partitions on a set and, conversely, the math of partitions is a skeletonized set level version of the math of QM.
Partitions, Objective Indefiniteness, and Quantum Reality
December 30, 2022 by
This paper, published in the International Journal for Quantum Foundations, is a shorter introductory paper following up on my recent “Follow the Math!” paper in the Foundations of Physics. The point is to show that the mathematics of QM is the vector (Hilbert) space version of the mathematics of partitions at the set level. […]
New Light on the Objective Indefiniteness or Literal Interpretation of QM
December 17, 2018 by
This paper shows how the mathematics of QM is the math of indefiniteness and thus, literally and realistically interpreted, it describes an objectively indefinite reality at the quantum level. In particular, the mathematics of wave propagation is shown to also be the math of the evolution of indefinite states that does not change the degree of indistinctness between states. This corrects the historical wrong turn of seeing QM as “wave mechanics” rather than the mechanics of particles with indefinite/definite properties.
Talk: Hamming distance in classical and quantum logical information theory
January 12, 2018 by
This is a set of slides from a talk on introducing the Hamming distance into classical logical information theory and then developing the quantum logical notion of Hamming distance–which turns out to equal a standard notion of distance in quantum information theory, the Hilbert-Schmidt distance.
Talk: New Foundations for Quantum Information Theory
November 28, 2017 by
These are the slides for a talk given at the 6th International Conference on New Frontiers in Physics on Crete in August 2017.
Logical Entropy: Introduction to Classical and Quantum Logical Information Theory
July 15, 2017 by
Logical information theory is the quantitative version of the logic of partitions just as logical probability theory is the quantitative version of the dual Boolean logic of subsets. The resulting notion of information is about distinctions, differences, and distinguishability, and is formalized as the distinctions of a partition (a pair of points distinguished by the partition). This paper is an introduction to the quantum version of logical information theory.
Quantum Logic of Direct-sum Decompositions
June 20, 2017 by
The usual quantum logic, beginning with Birkhoff and Von Neumann, was the logic of closed subspaces of a Hilbert space. This paper develops the more general logic of direct-sum decompositions of a vector space. This allows the treatment of measurement of any self-adjoint operators rather than just the projection operators associated with subspaces.
From Abstraction in Math to Superposition in QM
January 14, 2017 by
This is a draft paper that makes a perhaps surprising connection between the old Platonic notion of a paradigm-universal like ‘the white thing’ and an indefinite superposition state in quantum mechanics.
Quantum Mechanics over Sets
August 8, 2016 by
This paper published in Synthese shows how the classical finite probability theory (with equiprobable outcomes) can be reinterpreted and recast as the quantum probability calculus of a pedagogical or “toy” model of quantum mechanics over sets (QM/sets).
The Existence-Information Duality
October 30, 2015 by
The development of the logic of partitions (dual to the usual Boolean logic of subsets) and logical information theory bring out a fundamental duality between existence (e.g., elements of a subset) and information (e.g., distinctions of a partition). This leads in a more meta-physical vein to two different conceptions of reality, one of which provides the realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics.