creators_name: Muller, Thomas
type: pittpreprint
datestamp: 2001-12-10
lastmod: 2010-10-07 15:10:37
metadata_visibility: show
title: Branching space-time, modal logic, and the counterfactual conditional
subjects: models-and-idealization
subjects: quantum-mechanics
full_text_status: public
keywords: branching time, branching space-time, formal language, physical possibility, counterfactual conditional
abstract: The paper gives a physicist's view on the framework of branching space-time (Belnap, Synthese 92 (1992), 385--434). Branching models are constructed from physical state assignments. The models are then employed to give a formal semantics for the modal operators ``possibly'' and ``necessarily'' and for the counterfactual conditional. The resulting formal language can be used to analyze quantum correlation experiments. As an application sketch, Stapp's premises LOC1 and LOC2 from his purported proof of non-locality (Am. J. Phys. 65 (1997), 300--304) are analyzed. 
date: 2001-12
date_type: published
citation: Muller, Thomas (2001) Branching space-time, modal logic, and the counterfactual conditional. [Preprint]
document_url: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/509/1/tm_cracow_proc.ps