Wallace, David (2024) Quantum Systems Other Than the Universe. [Preprint]

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Abstract

How should we interpret physical theories, and especially quantum theory, if we drop the assumption that we should treat it as an exact description of the whole Universe? I expound and develop the claim that physics is about the study of autonomous, but not necessarily isolated, dynamical systems, and that when applied to quantum mechanics this entails that in general we should take quantum systems as having mixed states and non-unitary dynamics. I argue that nonetheless unitary dynamics continues to have a special place in physics, via the empirically-well-supported reductionist principles that non-unitarity is to be explained by restriction to a subsystem of a larger unitary system and that microscopic physics is governed by unitary and largely known dynamics. I contrast this position with the `Open Systems View' advocated recently by Michael Cuffaro and Stephan Hartmann.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Wallace, David david.wallace@pitt.edu
Keywords:	quantum theory open systems
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics
Depositing User:	Professor David Wallace
Date Deposited:	21 Jun 2024 05:01
Last Modified:	21 Jun 2024 05:01
Item ID:	23593
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics
Date:	June 2024
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23593

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