Reverse Physics is a methodology that breaks physical theories into separate mathematical and physical conditions to establish their logical relationships. To showcase the power of the methodology, we present several results for quantum mechanics and their related insights. The standard Hilbert-space formulation conflicts with basic physical requirements, while a minimal topological modification can solve these problems. The ensemble space, rather than the pure-state space, distinguishes classical from quantum systems. The Born rule is an additional assumption linking orthogonality, mutual exclusivity and information entropy. Under explicit background conditions, unitary evolution is equivalent to deterministic and reversible evolution. Nonselective projective measurements can be characterized as Lindblad equilibration processes, while unitary evolution can be characterized as a limit of infinitesimal projective processes. Classical mechanics is recovered as the high-entropy limit of quantum mechanics, and every quantum state, pure or mixed, is a dynamical, spectral and thermodynamic equilibrium. These results are self-contained, use the standard vector-space representation and can thus be used as common tools and constraints for teaching, interpretations, reconstructions and future theories.
Textbook quantum superposition refers to the feature that certain linear combinations of Hilbert space rays, each representing a valid quantum state, are themselves valid states. This notion is not operational, and it relies on the underlying Hilbert space formalism. Recent proposals for experimental tests of indefinit...
Classical mechanics and quantum mechanics have long been framed as binary opposites—but this dichotomy has
yielded no real benefits, only persistent confusion. The fundamental equations of quantum mechanics cannot logically
demarcate a clear boundary between the quantum and classical realms; in fact, the mass m and pot...
Run-Sheng Tu· International Journal of Qua...· 0 citations
Quantum thermodynamics is traditionally formulated as a theory of equilibrium states and state transformations. Recent advances in higher-order quantum transformations, which describe physical scenarios beyond states and channels and provide a systematic framework for causal order, raise the question of how equilibrium...
S. Milz, Kyrylo Simonov, Z. Zimborás et al.· 0 citations
Coherences between different energy levels are strongly constrained by thermodynamics. Here we ask a related question: if several coherence transfers can be optimized separately, can they also be optimized simultaneously by the same thermodynamic process? We show that this is in general a compatibility problem. Using a...
A persistent conceptual puzzle in statistical mechanics is that the entropy S of a classical ideal gas depends on quantum mechanical quantities such as Planck's constant h and the factor 1/N!, which is commonly attributed to the indistinguishability of quantum particles. We resolve this puzzle by distinguishing entropy...
Y. Shiferaw· American Journal of Physics· 0 citations
Phase-space representations reveal the geometry of quantum mechanics and distinguish quantum features from classical ones. However, the positivity of a density operator is among the properties of quantum states that phase-space representations capture least directly: deciding whether a phase-space function describes a...
Zacharie Van Herstraeten, Ulysse Chabaud· 0 citations
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