Quantum ontology

This article was registered in the quality assurance of the physics editorial team . If you are familiar with the topic, you are welcome to participate in the review and possible improvement of the article. The exchange of views about this is currently not taking place on the article discussion page , but on the quality assurance side of physics.

Under Quantenontologie is understood in quantum mechanics a basic set of statements about quantum objects , the starting point for the construction of a formal language ( "quantum language"), including its logic ( " quantum logic is").

Differentiation from the ontology of classical physics

The four essential statements of quantum ontology are:

• Q1: For every measurable property of a quantum object (e.g. “ spin 1/2” for an electron ), a measurement can be used to determine whether the quantum object has this property or not.
• Q2: A quantum object is not “consistently determined”; that is, there are incommensurable properties that cannot be ascribed to the object at the same time.
• Q3: There is no causal law for the behavior of quantum objects .
• Q4: The law of mass conservation does not apply to quantum objects .

These statements are interpreted as a weakening of the "classical ontology" underlying classical physics (simultaneous assignment of all measurable properties; validity of causal law and energy conservation law ). Even if quantum ontology is historically a consequence of quantum mechanics , it is understood as a priori , since the results of quantum mechanics only provided indications that the way of thinking in classical physics was burdened with hypotheses that are neither intuitive nor justified by rational thinking .

Connection to the Hilbert space of quantum mechanics

The quantum logic which characterizes the language of quantum mechanics can be mathematically to a orthomodular, association are mapped from which a then Hilbert space is to be derived. Since this reflects the basic theoretical structure of quantum mechanics, it is concluded that essential statements of this modern physical theory are already established a priori by quantum ontology .

literature

• Maria Luisa Dalla Chiara, Roberto Giuntini: Quantum Logics. Florence 2008. PDF.
• Peter Mittelstaedt : Rational Reconstructions of Modern Physics. 2nd edition Doordrecht 2013. ISBN 978-94-007-5592-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ For more information, see Franz Josef Burghardt : The law of causation in physics. In: Physik und Didaktik 4. (1983), pp. 285-297.
2. ^ Mittelstaedt: Rational Reconstructions. Pp. 78-82 and 121-123.
3. ↑ So far the transition to a Hilbert space over the complex numbers can be made mathematically under a restrictive condition, but no corresponding physical justification can be given for this special case.
   Dalla Chiara: Quantum Logics. P. 50.
   Mittelstaedt: Rational Reconstructions. P. 128.
4. ^ Mittelstaedt: Rational Reconstructions. Pp. 79-80.