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Zenith Grant Awardee

Olimpia Lombardi

Theiss Research

Co-Investigators

Mario Castagnino, Universidad de Buenos Aires-CONICET; Roberto Laura, Universidad Nacional de Rosario

Project Title

The nature of information for an informational reformulation of the modal-Hamiltonian interpretation of quantum mechanics

Project Summary

During the last decades, the notion of information has pervaded the foundations of physics, in particular, the discussions about the interpretation of quantum mechanics. However, the nature of information itself is still a very controversial issue. More specifically, it is not clear yet whether information is a physical, a syntactic or a semantic magnitude. We recently introduced the modal-Hamiltonian interpretation of quantum mechanics (MHI) as a modal realist, no-collapse, no-ensemble interpretation, and we argued for its physical relevance and its ability to solve the traditional interpretive problems. Moreover, we expressed it under a group- invariant form, articulated its logico-ontological structure, and studied its links with quantum decoherence. The purpose of the present project is to reformulate the MHI in informational terms. But this task requires to make a decision about the nature of the information relevant to the task itself: first, it is necessary to show that the information relevant to a realist interpretation is a physical magnitude and not a merely syntactic of semantic item and, second, it is necessary to determine whether there is a meaningful conceptual difference between quantum and classical information or not.

Technical Abstract

During the last decades, the notion of information has pervaded the foundations of physics, in particular, the discussions about the interpretation of quantum mechanics. However, the nature of information itself is still a very controversial issue. More specifically, it is not clear yet whether information is a physical, a syntactic or a semantic magnitude. We recently introduced the modal-Hamiltonian interpretation of quantum mechanics (MHI) as a modal realist, no-collapse, no-ensemble interpretation, and we argued for its physical relevance and its ability to solve the traditional interpretive problems. Moreover, we expressed it under a group- invariant form, articulated its logico-ontological structure, and studied its links with quantum decoherence. The purpose of the present project is to reformulate the MHI in informational terms. But this task requires to make a decision about the nature of the information relevant to the task itself: first, it is necessary to show that the information relevant to a realist interpretation is a physical magnitude and not a merely syntactic of semantic item and, second, it is necessary to determine whether there is a meaningful conceptual difference between quantum and classical information or not.

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