Towards a General Operational and Realistic Framework for Quantum Mechanics and Relativity Theory

Abstract

We propose a general operational and realistic framework that aims at a generalization of quantum mechanics and relativity theory, such that both appear as special cases of this new theory. Our framework is operational, in the sense that all aspects are introduced with specific reference to events to be experienced, and realistic, in the sense that the hypothesis of an independent existing reality is taken seriously. To come to this framework we present a detailed study of standard quantum mechanics within the axiomatic approach to quantum mechanics, more specifically the Geneva-Brussels approach, identifying two of the traditional 6 axioms as 'failing axioms'. We prove that these two failing axioms are at the origin of the impossibility for standard quantum mechanics to describe a continuous change from quantum to classical and hence its inability to describe macroscopic physical reality. Moreover we show that the same two axioms are also at the origin of the impossibility for standard quantum mechanics to deliver a model for the compound entity of two 'separated' quantum entities. We put forward that it is necessary to replace these two axioms in order to proceed to the more general theory. Next we analyze the nature of the quantum probability model and show that it can be interpreted as the consequence of the presence of a lack of knowledge on the interaction between the measurement apparatus and the physical entity under consideration. These two insights, the failing axioms and the nature of quantum probability, give rise to a very specific view on the quantum phenomenon of nonlocality. Nonlocality should be interpreted as nonspatiality. This means that an entity in a nonlocal state, like for example the typical EPR state, is 'not inside space'. As a consequence, space is no longer the all embracing theatre of reality, but a structure that has emerged together with the macroscopic material entities that have emerged from the microworld. This clarifies why general relativity theory cannot be used as a basis for the elaboration of the new generalized theory, since in general relativity theory the set of events is taken a priori to be the time-space continuum. Hence in general relativity theory time-space is a basic structure considered to capture all of reality. In our framework we introduce 'happenings' and the 'set of happenings' as constituting reality. A happening is however not identified with a point of time-space, as this is the case for an events of general relativity theory. We analyze different aspects of the new framework, and list the most important problems to be investigated for an elaboration of this framework into a workable and as complete as possible theory.

Thinking Outside the Box: The Essence and Implications of Quantum Entanglement and the Story of Spin-mediated Consciousness Theory

“…So pre-spacetime is a holistic domain located outside spacetime but connected through quantum thread/channel to everywhere in spacetime enabling quantum entanglement or Einstein's "spooky action at a distance." Aerts (2004), Clarke (2004) and others have also expressed the non-space view of quantum nonlocality.…”

Information, immaterialism, instrumentalism: Old and new in quantum information

“…It would not do simply to add any old axioms that would have the effect of recovering the correct structure of experimental questions, otherwise there is no explanatory gain to be had. Recall that there has been considerable progress in the quantum logical tradition of providing axiomatisations of quantum mechanics (see, e.g., Aerts and Aerts (2005) for a succinct review), but it is not clear that these approaches render quantum mechanics any less mysterious or any more intuitively understandable. It is not clear, in any case, that this is really their purpose.…”

Quantum Machine and Semantic Realism Approach: a Unified Model

“…The microscopic SR model is a noncontextual general model for measurements on any kind of quantum system, aiming to demonstrate the consistency of the SR interpretation of QM. The quantum machine provides a macroscopic model for measurements on quantum systems described by two dimensional Hilbert spaces, aiming in particular to suggest some enlargements of QM which would allow us to go beyond its present limits, which is classified by the authors as highly contextual [9] (in the sense that the result of a measurement depends also on the measuring apparatus and not only on the state of the particle that is measured).…”

“…We call this kind of contextuality here contextuality 1 , and note that no reference is made in its definition to individual differences between apparatuses measuring A, which are thus implicitly considered ideal and identical. On the contrary, according to the GB approach the contextuality of the quantum machine follows from the fact that each individual experiment introduces a different set of hidden variables of the measuring apparatus, so that different measurements of the same observable may yield different results [9]. This provides implicitly a different definition of contextuality, that we call here contextuality 2 , which makes reference to the differences that unavoidably exist between individual apparatuses measuring A.…”