The concept of reality in the light of quantum theory

George D. Rock

道夫 和田

David Thomas Pegg

A quantised version of Wheeler-Feynman time symmetric absorber theory sheds new light on an old problem at present experiencing a revival of interest. Some photon correlation experiments, when interpreted in terms of quantum electrodynamics, lead to conceptual difficulties of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen type. The results imply that one has to abandon either the concept of strict causality, which would make conventional quantum electrodynamics self-inconsistent, or the concept of an objective reality independent of the observer, which has far-reaching philosophical consequences. In terms of absorber theory, on the other thand, there is no need to abandon objective reality and, in fact, such an experiment is directly interpretable as an example of the manifestation of the future on the past, which is the important distinguishing feature of absorber theory.

Rongwei Yang

The ``Hard Problem" of consciousness refers to a long-standing enigma about how qualia emerge from physical processes in the brain. Building on insights from the development of non-Euclidean geometry, this paper seeks to present a structured and logically coherent theory of qualia to address this problem. The proposed theory starts with a definition on what it means for an entity to be non-physical. A postulate about awareness is posed and utilized to rigorously prove that qualia are non-physical and thoughts are qualia. Then the paper introduces a key concept: relative reality, meaning that perceptions of reality are relative to the observer and time. The concept is analyzed through a mathematical model grounded in Hilbert space theory. The model also sheds new light on cognitive science and physics. In particular, the Schrödinger equation can be derived easily through this model. Moreover, this model shows that eigenstates also exist for classical energy-conserving systems. Analyses on the G. P. Thomson experiment and the classical harmonic oscillator are made to illustrate this finding. The insight gained sheds new light on the Bohr-Einstein debate concerning the interpretation of quantum mechanics. At last, the paper proposes a postulate about qualia force and demonstrates that it constitutes a fundamental part of absolute reality, much like the four fundamental forces in nature.

Michael G. Raymer, P. Polakos

The quantum nature of light enables potentially revolutionary communication technologies. A key to advancing this area of research is a clear understanding of the concepts of states, modes, fields, and photons. The concept of field modes carries over from classical optics, while the concept of state has to be considered carefully when treating light quantum mechanically. The term "photon" is an overloaded identifier in the sense that it is often used to refer to either a quantum particle or the state of a field. This overloading, often used without placing it in context, has the potential to obfuscate the physical processes that describe the reality we measure. We review the uses and relationships between these concepts using modern quantum optics theory, including the concept of a photon wave function, the modern history of which was moved forward in a groundbreaking paper in this journal by Iwo Białynicki-Birula, to whom this article is dedicated.