Molecular magnetism: A philosophical perspective from a biased point of view

Jeffry L. Ramsey

A. Y. Klimenko

CP bias in proton--antiproton diffractive dissociation can be viewed from several philosophical perspectives, notably stochastic realism and stochastic epistemicism. When combined with the presumption of temporal symmetry, stochastic realism suggests that the laws of physics allow the possibility of thermodynamic antisystems, although whether antisystemic characteristics can be physically realised in nature remains an open question. Here, this bias is interpreted as apparent, indicating significant non-unitary contributions and a distinction from fundamental CP violations arising from unitary Hamiltonian dynamics. Such apparent effects may arise from intrinsic stochasticity, from environmental interactions, or from interference between the two. This work investigates the relevant mechanisms and determines conditions for creating, transmitting, or screening a CP bias. In the environmental branch, an equilibrated radiation bath may transmit a CP bias from matter-dominated surroundings, although causality constraints may limit this possibility. In the intrinsic branch, the observed bias is consistent with subleading antisystemic effects required by CPT invariance. Further experiments are needed to distinguish between these mechanisms.

Mark R. Pederson

Nalliely Hernández Cornejo

In this writing, I reconstruct the Principle of Complementarity in Quantum Mechanics, elaborated by Niels Bohr, and the conception of objectivity implied in it (and in Bohr's writings).Then, I connect it with the epistemological pragmatism of the philosopher Richard Rorty.My aim is to reinterpret some issues of this quantum description that concern the category of objectivity from the Rortian perspective in a plausible way.This allows me to connect in a positive and a negative sense some quantum (and Bohrian) assumptions to the Rortian perspective, but mainly, it allows to reconsider the framework of scientific objects from the modern perspective to a new pragmatist and anti-essentialist point of view.

Ian B. Spielman