Williams, Porter (2022) Entanglement, Complexity, and Causal Asymmetry in Quantum Theories. Foundations of Physics.
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Abstract
It is often claimed that one cannot locate a notion of causation in fundamental physical theories. The reason most commonly given is that the dynamics of those theories do not support any distinction between the past and the future, and this vitiates any attempt to locate a notion of causal asymmetry --- and thus of causation -- in fundamental physical theories. I argue that this is incorrect: the ubiquitous generation of entanglement between quantum systems grounds a relevant asymmetry in the dynamical evolution of quantum systems. I show that by exploiting a connection between the amount of entanglement in a quantum state and the algorithmic complexity of that state, one can use recently developed tools for causal inference to identify a causal asymmetry -- and a notion of causation -- in the dynamical evolution of quantum systems.
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| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | ||||||
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| Keywords: | Causation, Entanglement, Quantum Theory | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation Specific Sciences > Computation/Information Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics |
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| Depositing User: | Porter Williams | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 16 Apr 2022 04:17 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 16 Apr 2022 04:17 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 20464 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Foundations of Physics | ||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-022-00562-0 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Causation Specific Sciences > Computation/Information Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics |
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| Date: | April 2022 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20464 |
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