Entanglement and Open Systems in Algebraic Quantum Field Theory

Entanglement has long been the subject of discussion by philosophers of quantum theory, and has recently come to play an essential role for physicists in their development of quantum information theory. In this paper we show how the formalism of algebraic quantum field theory (AQFT) provides a rigorous framework within which to analyse entanglement in the context of a fully relativistic formulation of quantum theory. What emerges from the analysis are new practical and theoretical limitations on an experimenter's ability to perform operations on a field in one spacetime region that can disentangle its state from the state of the field in other spacelike-separated regions. These limitations show just how deeply entrenched entanglement is in relativistic quantum field theory, and yield a fresh perspective on the ways in which the theory differs conceptually from both standard non-relativistic quantum theory and classical relativistic field theory.     

Quantum propensities

This paper reviews four attempts throughout the history of quantum mechanics to explicitly employ dispositional notions in order to solve the quantum paradoxes, namely: Margenau's latencies, Heisenberg's potentialities, Maxwell's propensitons, and the recent selective propensities interpretation of quantum mechanics. Difficulties and challenges are raised for all of them, and it is concluded that the selective propensities approach nicely encompasses the virtues of its predecessors. Finally, some strategies are discussed for reading similar dispositional notions into two other well-known interpretations of quantum mechanics, namely the GRW interpretation and Bohmian mechanics.     

精密测量中的量子极限

给定一个物理装置,对于一个物理可观察量能够得到的测量精度是什么?为了回答这一问题,本文以最近量子精密测量的发展为主线,量子参数估值方法为核心,介绍单粒子(线性耦合)体系和多粒子(非线性耦合)体系物理量测量精度的量子限制.作为例子,对光学量子精密测量中如何突破标准量子极限,甚至海森堡极限做了简明阐述.特别总结了非线性精密测量在突破海森堡极限方面的最新进展.最后,探讨了量子精密测量未来发展的可能趋势.     

Algebraic formulae for the Moon,Saturn and Jupiter in the Pancasiddhantika

Summary The daily motion of the Moon, and the synodic arcs and periods of Saturn and Jupiter are derived from the algebraic formulae given in the Pancasiddhantika.     

The Early Development of the Algebraic Theory of Semigroups

In the history of mathematics, the algebraic theory of semigroups is a relative new-comer, with the theory proper developing only in the second half of the twentieth century. Before this, however, much groundwork was laid by researchers arriving at the study of semigroups from the directions of both group and ring theory. In this paper, we will trace some major strands in the early development of the algebraic theory of semigroups. We will begin with the aspects of the theory which were directly inspired by, and were analogous to, existing results for both groups and rings, before moving on to consider the first independent theorems on semigroups: theorems with no group or ring analogues. Dedicated to the memory of Professor W. Douglas Munn. This article was begun when the author was an EPSRC-funded research student at the University of York, UK, and completed at CAUL under FCT post-doctoral research grant SFRH/BPD/34698/2007.     

Logic of discovery and justification in regulatory genetics

In the above pages I have sketched a history of the genesis and comparative evaluation of the repressor model of genetic regulation of enzyme induction. I have not attempted in this article to carry out an analysis of the more scientifically interesting fully developed Jacob-Monod operon theory of genetic regulations but such an analysis of the operon theory would not, I believe, involve any additional logical or epistemological features than have been discussed above.I have argued that the above account of the development of a theory of enzyme induction involved inferential moves and well-characterized desiderata, of both empirical and non-empirical character, in the genesis and evaluation of new hypotheses and theories. I have also contended that the reasoning displayed in the genesis of a theory is in a large measure identical to that utilized in evaluating a theory. Both of these conclusions are at variance with the views of philosophers such as H. Reichenbach, Sir Karl Popper, and C.G. Hempel who have argued that the genesis of new hypotheses is primarily an irrational affair and that only the context of justification is susceptible of rational reconstruction. In the alternative view presented here, scientific discovery and scientific justification represent the application in contexts, which are primarily telically distinguishable, of a fundamentally unitary logic of scientific inquiry.     

The Loss of Coherence in Quantum Cosmology

I analyse two different methods for the retrieval of a classical notion of spacetime from the theory of quantum cosmology in terms of the different means they employ to bring about the necessary loss of coherence. One method employs a direct coarse graining of the appropriate phase space, whereas the other method is based on decohering the system by the interaction with an environment. Although these methods are equivalent on a phenomenological level, I argue that conceptually the decoherence approach is superior. The coarse graining approach construes the necessary loss of coherence in epistemic terms, whereas the method based on decohering the system by interaction with an environment provides a dynamical explanation for the emergence of classical notions of spacetime. On the latter account the emergence of classical behaviour is an objective property of the physical system under consideration, in contradistinction with the subjective coarse graining account of the retrieval of a classical spacetime in terms of measurements made by an observer.     

非线性量子力学的建立

笔者在长期研究工作的基础上,从提出非线性量子力学的基本原理出发,建立起了非线性量子力学理论,形成了完整的非线性量子力学的理论体系。从而把量子力学从线性领域推广和发展到非线性领域。在本文中笔者描述了建立这个非线性量子力学的物理背景,它的基本构思,研究的技术路线,产生的实际效果,与国际同类研究比较,本研究的创新和特点以及研究的重大意义。     

Quantum probability and many worlds

We discuss the meaning of probabilities in the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. We start by presenting very briefly the many worlds theory, how the problem of probability arises, and some unsuccessful attempts to solve it in the past. Then we criticize a recent attempt by Deutsch to derive the quantum mechanical probabilities from the non-probabilistic parts of quantum mechanics and classical decision theory. We further argue that the Born probability does not make sense even as an additional probability rule in the many worlds theory. Our conclusion is that the many worlds theory fails to account for the probabilistic statements of standard (collapse) quantum mechanics.     

量子关联及其应用

量子关联是量子系统具有的一种重要的非经典性质,被普遍研究的量子纠缠就是量子信息处理中重要的量子关联.随着研究的深入,最近发现了很多不需要纠缠的非经典现象在量子信息中扮演了关键角色.文章介绍了基于量子失协及其相关的非经典量子关联,讨论了各种量子关联在量子信息模型中各种物理解释与应用.     

Quantum Mechanics as a Principle Theory

I show how quantum mechanics, like the theory of relativity, can be understood as a ‘principle theory’ in Einstein's sense, and I use this notion to explore the approach to the problem of interpretation developed in my book Interpreting the Quantum World.