A categorical framework for quantum theory
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Abstract: Underlying any theory of physics is a layer of conceptual frames. They connect the mathematical structures used in theoretical models with physical phenomena, but they also constitute our fundamental assumptions about reality. Many of the discrepancies between quantum physics and classical physics (including Maxwell's electrodynamics and relativity) can be traced back to these categorical foundations. We argue that classical physics corresponds to the factual aspects of reality and requires a categorical framework which consists of four interdependent components: boolean logic, the linear-sequential notion of time, the principle of sufficient reason, and the dichotomy between observer and observed. None of these can be dropped without affecting the others. However, in quantum theory the reduction postulate also addresses the "status nascendi" of facts, i.e., their coming into being. Therefore, quantum phyics requires a different conceptual framework which will be elaborated in this article. It is shown that many of its components are already present in the standard formalisms of quantum physics, but in most cases they are highlighted not so much from a conceptual perspective but more from their mathematical structures. The categorical frame underlying quantum physics includes a profoundly different notion of time which encompasses a crucial role for the present.
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- Complementarity in categorical quantum mechanics
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- Loops, projective invariants, and the realization of the Borromean topological link in quantum mechanics
- Category-theoretic analysis of the notion of complementarity for quantum systems
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- A 2-Categorical Approach to Composing Quantum Structures.
- scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7471668 (Why is no real title available?)
- Categorical Quantum Mechanics I: Causal Quantum Processes
- Towards a general operational and realistic framework for quantum mechanics and relativity theory
- A categorical quantum logic
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