The Dual Phenomenon

Kariman I. Osman, Amitabh Joshi

Helio V. Fagundes

The quantum mechanical wave-particle dualism is analyzed and criticized, in the framework of Reichenbach's concepts of phenomenon and interphenomenon. It is suggested that the dual pictures be de-emphasized in the study of quantum theory, and that a qualitative picture of atomic processes need not make use of them. In this connection we stress a view of the electron and other such particles as having discontinuous spatiality in time: they only have a place or a shape when they participate in a phenomenon.

Pedro Fernández de Córdoba, J. M. Isidro, Milton H. Perea +1 more

We elaborate on the existing notion that quantum mechanics is an emergent phenomenon, by presenting a thermodynamical theory that is dual to quantum mechanics. This dual theory is that of classical irreversible thermodynamics. The linear regime of irreversibility considered here corresponds to the semiclassical approximation in quantum mechanics. An important issue we address is how the irreversibility of time evolution in thermodynamics is mapped onto the quantum-mechanical side of the correspondence.