Probability as a Theory Dependent Concept

R. Jagannathan

Mustafa Erol, Muhammed Emre Kuzucu

Present study focuses on some foundational problems of quantum theory specifically deals with the concept of probability density and relating introductory problems. In this sense, the work initially investigates the origins of the general probability theory and re-examines the concepts of spatial and temporal probability densities based on genuine epistemological and ontological arguments. In order to tackle the foundational problems, standard theory is primarily memorised and criticized scientifically and philosophically in terms of foundationally disappearing term of time dependent potential energy within the time and space dependent Schrödinger wave equation. Based on those arguments, the problematic inconsistency between the spatial and temporal probability density functions is underlined. Given the problem, an original approach previously suggested, is concisely described and extended to resolve the existing problem. The novel approach, based on a novel time dependent Schrödinger wave equation, resolves the discrepancy with the classical wave equation and also leads to time dependent temporal probability densities even for the time free potential energies. Novel temporal probability density function is also normalized and has a fluctuation period of around 10-16 s which is very short compared to the atomic time scales.

Jin Yoshimura, Daniel Waterman

Arnold Neumaier

In this chapter, we consider the way quantum theory represents deterministic, statistical, and probabilistic aspects of Nature. After a discussion in Section 3.1 of uncertainty in general, we discuss in Sections 3.2-3.4 several formal notions of classical probability, their relation to the probability concept used in applied statistics, and their dependence on the description used. Section 3.5 briefly discusses various examples, where probabilistic features emerge from fully deterministic situations-a theme to be taken up in much more detail in Chapter 11. Section 3.6 then shows how the statistical aspects of the quantum formalism naturally follow from the weak law of large numbers. The notions of c-probability in the classical case and of q-probability in the quantum case are formally defined in Section 3.7. Historically, the concept of classical probability (including its use in stochastic processes) was given an undisputed formal mathematical foundation in 1933 in terms of the measure-theoretic setting of Kolmogorov [164]. Apart from this traditional axiomatic foundation of classical probability theory, there is a less well-known equivalent axiomatic treatment by Whittle [302] in terms of expectations. Here probabilities appear as the expectations of statements, {0, 1}-valued random variables. von Plato [240] discusses the history of the concept of probability. Krüger et al. [169] discuss the history of probability in the various fields of application. Sklar [275] discusses the philosophical problems of the probability concept, with an emphasis on statistical mechanics.

J.E. Sephton