Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Cambridge University Press eBooks

Introduction

James Lindesay

Published May 16, 2013• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This book examines the foundational consistency of quantum mechanics incorporated within relativistic frameworks. Quantum physics remains a perplexing formalism that, although very successful in explaining physical phenomena, poses many philosophical and interpretational questions. Several of the subtleties of quantum physics become more manifest when quantum processes are described using relativistic dynamics. For instance, the successful connection of spin to quantum statistics is a consequence of the consistent incorporation of special relativity into the quantum formalism. There should be similar profound explanations awaiting discovery as gravitating phenomena are successfully incorporated into quantum formulations. The common theme of this manuscript is the examination of the incorporation of relativistic behaviors upon the foundations of quantum physics. The approach is to keep all formulations as close to observed phenomena as possible, rather than to present a set of speculative models whose primary motivations are internal aesthetics. In the search for the most elegant models of physical phenomena, one must recognize that at its core, physics is an experimental science. The dimensional analysis of fundamental units, taught at the very beginning of introductory physics classes, demonstrates that phenomenology lies at the foundations of physics. Fundamental ideas such as correspondence, the principle of relativity, and complementarity provide direct contact with the physics used to guide this exploration. This manuscript is an elaboration and expansion on previously published work, but also contains some new material.

DOI
10.1017/cbo9780511919909.003

Related papers

Quantum mechanics, classical, and special relativity

James Lindesay

Fundamentals of quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics remains one of the most successful, yet enigmatic, formulations of physics. Uncertainty and measurement constraints are incorporated at the core of this fundamental description of micro-physical dynamics. Quantum mechanics successfully describes the observed structures in chemistry and materials science. In particular, the impenetrability of matter due to Pauli exclusion is a consequence of incorporating special relativity into quantum mechanics. Microscopic causality , or the requirement that communications cannot propagate at greater than the speed of light, relates a particle's spin to its quantum statistics but does not exclude the space-like correlations associated with a coherent quantum state. This section will examine some of the foundations of quantum physics. An emphasis will be placed upon how the microscopic fundamentals of quantum mechanics relate to the geometric fundamentals of gravitational mechanics. Quantum formalism There are several interpretations of quantum mechanics offering models of the underlying (often hidden) dynamics that generate the observed quantum phenomenology (for example, the Copenhagen interpretation, or the many-worlds interpretation). Since any interpretation consistent with quantum physics cannot be proved or disproved by experiment, only those aspects of quantum formalism directly connected to experimental observables will be developed, with minimal interpretation imposed. To establish the conventions utilized in what follows, a brief overview of the formalism that describes those calculable observables modeled by quantum physics will be given.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•May 16, 2013•0 citations

The Quantum Theory of Motion

Peter Holland

This book presents the first, comprehensive exposition of the interpretation of quantum mechanics pioneered by Louis de Broglie and David Bohm. The purpose is to explain how quantum processes may be visualized without ambiguity or confusion, in terms of a simple physical model. Developing the theme that a material system, such as an electron, is a particle guided by a surrounding quantum wave, an examination of the classic phenomena of quantum theory is presented to show how the spacetime orbits of an ensemble of particles can reproduce the statistical quantum predictions. The mathematical and conceptual aspects of this theory are developed carefully from first principles. The book thus provides a comprehensive overview of an approach which brings clarity to a subject notorious for its conceptual difficulties. It will, therefore, appeal to all physicists with an interest in the foundations of their subject.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•May 13, 1993•1,309 citations

On the Foundations of Quantum Physics

T. Bergstein

During the past two or three centuries western philosophy and science have confirmed each other in their ontological attitude towards external reality. The particular opinion that physical objects have an existence completely independent of observation was established as the necessary basis for all scientific investigation. The discovery in quantum physics that the phenomena ultimately constituting the stability of the material world cannot be separated from the instruments of observation was necessarily felt disastrous to the scientific world-picture, and many philosophers and scientists, including celebrated physicists, are still trying by all means to save ontology in quantum physics. The motive power behind this activity is the belief that the objectivity of science can be maintained only if the elementary particles of matter can be objectified in the usual way. The present chapter deals with the fundamental conditions in quantum physics which entail a complete breakdown of the conceptual frame of classical mechanics

•Jan 1, 1972•4 citations

Tractatus Principio — On Difference Vol. II — Book of Physics

C.H.F. Warnke

Book of Physics — On Difference Tractatus Principio, Volume II What if the fundamental entities of physics are not the foundations of reality, but the results of the relations through which reality becomes measurable? Book of Physics, the second volume of Tractatus Principio — On Difference by C.H.F. Warnke, extends the relational foundation developed in Volume I into the domain of physical reality. The work challenges a fundamental assumption underlying many physical descriptions: that mathematical abstractions such as points, particles, fields, and measurable quantities must correspond to independently existing constituents of the world. Its central distinction is between the mathematical representation of a physical phenomenon and the ontological interpretation of that representation. Beginning with a critical examination of classical mechanics, Cartesian geometry, Newtonian point-mass models, relativity, and quantum physics, the book investigates how relational descriptions can become interpreted as properties of self-contained physical objects. The work proposes a reversal of this perspective: physical objects are not the original bearers of relations. Rather, their determinacy emerges through relational structures, interactions, and the conditions under which they are observed and measured. Building upon the mathematical language of difference, represented by |, and its self-referential unfolding through Δ, the volume develops alternative interpretations of space, time, energy, mass, gravitation, and light. It examines dimensional measurement, relational invariance, the proposed significance of 39.19 within its own formal framework, and the organization of physical appearances through recursive structures and degrees of freedom. Gravitation is reconsidered through a relational shell model. Motion and time are investigated through the concept of complete relational states, or Frozen Frames, whose differences become readable as temporal succession. A central part of the work concerns measurement itself. Rather than treating measurement as the passive discovery of an already fully determined property, the book examines the relationship between observer, apparatus, registration, and interpretation. A measuring apparatus is understood as a materially realized question: its construction determines which differences can become detectable and how their results can be interpreted. From this perspective, particles and other physical entities are investigated as stable forms of relational determination rather than necessarily self-standing objects independent of every measurement context. The later chapters explore the uniformity of relational processes across different scales, including a reinterpretation of Bose–Einstein condensation, before returning to the distinction between scientific explanation and the conceptual images through which reality is understood. These proposals constitute an alternative theoretical interpretation within the framework of Tractatus Principio. Their physical validity is not established merely by the mathematical or conceptual arguments presented. The investigation ultimately reaches the observer himself. If every measurement is relational, the question arises of how the observer becomes capable of recognizing his own position within those relations. This question forms the transition to Volume III, the Book of Self-Knowledge. The central question of Volume II is not merely what physics measures, but what makes a physical reality measurable as something determinate in the first place.

•Oct 28, 2026•0 citations

A Vortex-Based Interpretation of Quantum Entanglement: Bridging Classical Intuition and Quantum Reality

Nader Butto

Quantum entanglement represents one of the most profound and counterintuitive phenomena in modern physics, challenging our classical understanding of locality and causality. While the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics accurately predicts entanglement correlations, the lack of a physically intuitive mechanism has led to numerous interpretational difficulties and philosophical debates. This article presents a comprehensive analysis of existing interpretations of quantum entanglement, from the Copenhagen interpretation to many-worlds and hidden variable theories, highlighting their limitations and motivating a novel vortex-based interpretation grounded in the hydrodynamic behavior of a superfluid vacuum, drawing upon the author’s published work on electron, quark, and gravitational force dynamics. This vortex model provides a physically intuitive and causally consistent explanation for nonlocal correlations without invoking superluminal signaling, offering a bridge between classical physics and quantum mechanics. The proposed interpretation suggests that entangled particles are surface manifestations of deeper, coherent vortex structures within a continuous vacuum medium, analogous to connected vortices in a fluid system. This framework not only resolves the conceptual difficulties associated with “spooky action at a distance” but also provides a foundation for understanding quantum phenomena through classical hydrodynamic principles.

Journal of High Energy Physics Gravitation and Cosmology•Jan 1, 2026•0 citations

Introduction and overview

Stephen L. Adler

Quantum mechanics is our most successful physical theory. It underlies our very detailed understanding of atomic physics, chemistry, and nuclear physics, and the many technologies to which physical systems in these regimes give rise. Additionally, relativistic quantum mechanics is the basis for the standard model of elementary particles, which very successfully gives a partial unification of the forces operating at the atomic, nuclear, and subnuclear levels. However, from its inception the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, and the fact that “quantum measurements” in the orthodox formulation appear to require the intervention of non-quantum mechanical “classical systems,” have led to speculations by many physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers of science that quantum mechanics may be incomplete. Among the Founding Fathers of quantum theory, Einstein and Schrödinger were both of the opinion that quantum mechanics is in some way unsatisfactory, and this view has been amplified in more recent profound work of John Bell, among others. In an opposing camp, many others in the physics, mathematics, and philosophy communities have attempted to provide an interpretational foundation in which quantum mechanics remains a complete and self-contained system. Among the Founding Fathers, Bohr, Born, and Heisenberg maintained that quantum mechanics is a complete system, and a number of recent proposals have been made to improve upon or to provide alternatives to their “Copenhagen Interpretation.” The debate continues, and has spawned an enormous literature.

Cambridge University Press eBooks•Aug 26, 2004•2 citations
This book examines the foundational consistency of quantum mechanics incorporated within relativistic frameworks. Quantum physics remains a perplexing formalism that, although very successful in explaining physical phenomena, poses many philosophical and interpretational questions. Several of the subtleties of quantum physics become more manifest when quantum processes are described using relativistic dynamics. For instance, the successful connection of spin to quantum statistics is a consequence of the consistent incorporation of special relativity into the quantum formalism. There should be similar profound explanations awaiting discovery as gravitating phenomena are successfully incorporated into quantum formulations. The common theme of this manuscript is the examination of the incorporation of relativistic behaviors upon the foundations of quantum physics. The approach is to keep all formulations as close to observed phenomena as possible, rather than to present a set of speculative models whose primary motivations are internal aesthetics. In the search for the most elegant models of physical phenomena, one must recognize that at its core, physics is an experimental science. The dimensional analysis of fundamental units, taught at the very beginning of introductory physics classes, demonstrates that phenomenology lies at the foundations of physics. Fundamental ideas such as correspondence, the principle of relativity, and complementarity provide direct contact with the physics used to guide this exploration. This manuscript is an elaboration and expansion on previously published work, but also contains some new material.
Fundamentals of quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics remains one of the most successful, yet enigmatic, formulations of physics. Uncertainty and measurement constraints are incorporated at the core of this fundamental description of micro-physical dynamics. Quantum mechanics successfully describes the observed structures in chemistry and materials science. In particular, the impenetrability of matter due to Pauli exclusion is a consequence of incorporating special relativity into quantum mechanics. Microscopic causality , or the requirement that communications cannot propagate at greater than the speed of light, relates a particle's spin to its quantum statistics but does not exclude the space-like correlations associated with a coherent quantum state. This section will examine some of the foundations of quantum physics. An emphasis will be placed upon how the microscopic fundamentals of quantum mechanics relate to the geometric fundamentals of gravitational mechanics. Quantum formalism There are several interpretations of quantum mechanics offering models of the underlying (often hidden) dynamics that generate the observed quantum phenomenology (for example, the Copenhagen interpretation, or the many-worlds interpretation). Since any interpretation consistent with quantum physics cannot be proved or disproved by experiment, only those aspects of quantum formalism directly connected to experimental observables will be developed, with minimal interpretation imposed. To establish the conventions utilized in what follows, a brief overview of the formalism that describes those calculable observables modeled by quantum physics will be given.
This book presents the first, comprehensive exposition of the interpretation of quantum mechanics pioneered by Louis de Broglie and David Bohm. The purpose is to explain how quantum processes may be visualized without ambiguity or confusion, in terms of a simple physical model. Developing the theme that a material system, such as an electron, is a particle guided by a surrounding quantum wave, an examination of the classic phenomena of quantum theory is presented to show how the spacetime orbits of an ensemble of particles can reproduce the statistical quantum predictions. The mathematical and conceptual aspects of this theory are developed carefully from first principles. The book thus provides a comprehensive overview of an approach which brings clarity to a subject notorious for its conceptual difficulties. It will, therefore, appeal to all physicists with an interest in the foundations of their subject.
During the past two or three centuries western philosophy and science have confirmed each other in their ontological attitude towards external reality. The particular opinion that physical objects have an existence completely independent of observation was established as the necessary basis for all scientific investigation. The discovery in quantum physics that the phenomena ultimately constituting the stability of the material world cannot be separated from the instruments of observation was necessarily felt disastrous to the scientific world-picture, and many philosophers and scientists, including celebrated physicists, are still trying by all means to save ontology in quantum physics. The motive power behind this activity is the belief that the objectivity of science can be maintained only if the elementary particles of matter can be objectified in the usual way. The present chapter deals with the fundamental conditions in quantum physics which entail a complete breakdown of the conceptual frame of classical mechanics
Book of Physics — On Difference Tractatus Principio, Volume II What if the fundamental entities of physics are not the foundations of reality, but the results of the relations through which reality becomes measurable? Book of Physics, the second volume of Tractatus Principio — On Difference by C.H.F. Warnke, extends the relational foundation developed in Volume I into the domain of physical reality. The work challenges a fundamental assumption underlying many physical descriptions: that mathematical abstractions such as points, particles, fields, and measurable quantities must correspond to independently existing constituents of the world. Its central distinction is between the mathematical representation of a physical phenomenon and the ontological interpretation of that representation. Beginning with a critical examination of classical mechanics, Cartesian geometry, Newtonian point-mass models, relativity, and quantum physics, the book investigates how relational descriptions can become interpreted as properties of self-contained physical objects. The work proposes a reversal of this perspective: physical objects are not the original bearers of relations. Rather, their determinacy emerges through relational structures, interactions, and the conditions under which they are observed and measured. Building upon the mathematical language of difference, represented by |, and its self-referential unfolding through Δ, the volume develops alternative interpretations of space, time, energy, mass, gravitation, and light. It examines dimensional measurement, relational invariance, the proposed significance of 39.19 within its own formal framework, and the organization of physical appearances through recursive structures and degrees of freedom. Gravitation is reconsidered through a relational shell model. Motion and time are investigated through the concept of complete relational states, or Frozen Frames, whose differences become readable as temporal succession. A central part of the work concerns measurement itself. Rather than treating measurement as the passive discovery of an already fully determined property, the book examines the relationship between observer, apparatus, registration, and interpretation. A measuring apparatus is understood as a materially realized question: its construction determines which differences can become detectable and how their results can be interpreted. From this perspective, particles and other physical entities are investigated as stable forms of relational determination rather than necessarily self-standing objects independent of every measurement context. The later chapters explore the uniformity of relational processes across different scales, including a reinterpretation of Bose–Einstein condensation, before returning to the distinction between scientific explanation and the conceptual images through which reality is understood. These proposals constitute an alternative theoretical interpretation within the framework of Tractatus Principio. Their physical validity is not established merely by the mathematical or conceptual arguments presented. The investigation ultimately reaches the observer himself. If every measurement is relational, the question arises of how the observer becomes capable of recognizing his own position within those relations. This question forms the transition to Volume III, the Book of Self-Knowledge. The central question of Volume II is not merely what physics measures, but what makes a physical reality measurable as something determinate in the first place.
Quantum entanglement represents one of the most profound and counterintuitive phenomena in modern physics, challenging our classical understanding of locality and causality. While the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics accurately predicts entanglement correlations, the lack of a physically intuitive mechanism has led to numerous interpretational difficulties and philosophical debates. This article presents a comprehensive analysis of existing interpretations of quantum entanglement, from the Copenhagen interpretation to many-worlds and hidden variable theories, highlighting their limitations and motivating a novel vortex-based interpretation grounded in the hydrodynamic behavior of a superfluid vacuum, drawing upon the author’s published work on electron, quark, and gravitational force dynamics. This vortex model provides a physically intuitive and causally consistent explanation for nonlocal correlations without invoking superluminal signaling, offering a bridge between classical physics and quantum mechanics. The proposed interpretation suggests that entangled particles are surface manifestations of deeper, coherent vortex structures within a continuous vacuum medium, analogous to connected vortices in a fluid system. This framework not only resolves the conceptual difficulties associated with “spooky action at a distance” but also provides a foundation for understanding quantum phenomena through classical hydrodynamic principles.
Quantum mechanics is our most successful physical theory. It underlies our very detailed understanding of atomic physics, chemistry, and nuclear physics, and the many technologies to which physical systems in these regimes give rise. Additionally, relativistic quantum mechanics is the basis for the standard model of elementary particles, which very successfully gives a partial unification of the forces operating at the atomic, nuclear, and subnuclear levels. However, from its inception the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, and the fact that “quantum measurements” in the orthodox formulation appear to require the intervention of non-quantum mechanical “classical systems,” have led to speculations by many physicists, mathematicians, and philosophers of science that quantum mechanics may be incomplete. Among the Founding Fathers of quantum theory, Einstein and Schrödinger were both of the opinion that quantum mechanics is in some way unsatisfactory, and this view has been amplified in more recent profound work of John Bell, among others. In an opposing camp, many others in the physics, mathematics, and philosophy communities have attempted to provide an interpretational foundation in which quantum mechanics remains a complete and self-contained system. Among the Founding Fathers, Bohr, Born, and Heisenberg maintained that quantum mechanics is a complete system, and a number of recent proposals have been made to improve upon or to provide alternatives to their “Copenhagen Interpretation.” The debate continues, and has spawned an enormous literature.