Determinism| Determinism |
In General
> s.a. causality and causality violations;
non-causal spacetimes; paradigms in physics.
* Idea: A property of
the evolution of a system, by which complete knowledge of the state
at one time determines uniquely the state at a future time.
* History: The concept
was introduced for a system by Newton [@ 1687], then extended to the
whole universe by Laplace [@ 1820]; However, Laplace thought that the
step from determinism to predictability was only a quantitative issue,
of having enough data; This we now know to be false, after quantum
mechanics (and special relativity) dealt a severe blow to this view.
* Status: Our fundamental
theories are deterministic, at least in the sense that the evolution of
the variables in the theory (i.e., not necessarily the values obtained
when measuring observables) is uniquely determined by the appropriate
initial conditions; The possible exceptions are two gravity-related
situations, the beginning of the universe (Strominger: "if you have
nothing and then there's something, that's not deterministic") and
black-hole evaporation; However, the creation of virtual black holes
by quantum fuctuations would then lead to violations of determinism
everywhere, and there are very strong bounds on that.
@ General references: Earman 86;
Ruelle 94 [chance and determinism, I];
Bishop phy/05-en [in physics, rev];
Lapiedra & Montes a1006 [macroscopic, electrocardiogram test];
D'Ariano et al PS(15)-a1301 [without causality, toy theory];
Werndl SHPMP-a1310;
Gilead a1510 [the twilight of determinism in biophysics];
Durham a1703 [emergent determinism from randomness];
Famourzadeh & Sefidkhosh a1909 [and Leibniz];
Bahreini et al a2007 [conceptual].
@ And free will: Candales a1407;
't Hooft a1709-conf,
Altaie a1802 [and the theory of everything];
Esfeld a1812 [no conflict];
Scardigli in(19)-a1906;
Ellis a2008 [reduction to microphysics, and the brain].
@ Indeterminism: Husain & Tasić a2011 [in general relativity, dark-energy FLRW models];
Del Santo & Gisin a2101 [the world is relativistic and indeterministic].
@ In classical physics: Stein PhSc(91)jun,
Maxwell PhSc(93)jun [in special relativity];
Bhat & Bernstein IJTP(97),
Kosyakov FP(08)ht/07 [example of non-unique evolution];
Wilson BJPS(09) [and the problem of 'missing physics'];
Norton PhSc(08)dec,
Malament PhSc(08)dec [the dome issue];
Palmer CP(14) [and causality, in fundamental physics];
Gisin a1803-conf,
Del Santo & Gisin PRA(19)-a1909,
Del Santo a2003-FQXi,
comment Kwok a2005,
Callegaro et al PRA(20)-a2009 [finite-information physics and non-determinism];
Smeenk & Wüthrich a2009 [in general relativity, and global hyperbolicity].
> Related topics: see chaos;
Free Will; Predictability;
random processes; reversibility;
spacetime singularities; Superdeterminism.
> Online resources: see
Wikipedia page.
In Quantum Physics > s.a. experiments in quantum theory.
* Idea: The theory
is deterministic in that a wave function evolves deterministically,
but results of single experiments are not predictable.
@ General references:
't Hooft ht/00-in [and dissipation];
Earman PhSc(08)dec [and cure for classical indeterminism];
Lapiedra & Pérez a1010 [proposed tests];
Reznikoff JPCS(12)-a1203 [deductive theories that cannot be deterministic];
Palmer CP(14)-a1309 [deterministic but non-computable theory of fundamental physics];
Spekkens FP(14)-a1312 [and proofs of the impossibility of a noncontextual model of quantum theory];
Vaidman QSMF(14)-a1405;
Cator & Landsman FP(14) [relationship between the Bell and Conway-Kochen (free will) theorems];
Ionicioiu et al PRL(15)-a1406;
Sudbery a1605-in [and quantum mechanics, I];
Del Santo a1807 [Einstein and Bohm];
Hall a2009 [perfect correlation and locality];
> s.a. bell's inequalities; time in quantum mechanics.
@ Indeterminism: Peres & Zurek AJP(82)sep [unavoidable];
Knill qp/96 [and randomness];
Paul a1011 [and classical unpredictability];
Landsman a2003 [and undecidability];
Gisin a2011 [and intuitionistic mathematics].
> And interpretations: see hidden
variables [including superdeterministic hidden variables]; pilot-wave interpretation.
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