Paris news/events

[GRINBAUM Alexei]

Dear all, this is a usual update on the philosophy of physics events in Paris.
 
New LARSIM  <http://www-drecam.cea.fr/spec/Phocea/Vie_des_labos/Ast/ast_groupe.php?id_unit=9&id_groupe=748> website (still in work)
 
Seminars in March 2007

March 9, 14:00
IHPST, grande salle (directions <http://www-ihpst.univ-paris1.fr/gen.php?lng=fr&cat=_general&rub=r05> )
Matteo Morganti (IHPST)
"Identity and individuality in physics"

March 16, 16:30
CREA, salle 315 (directions <http://www.crea.polytechnique.fr/planacces.htm> )
Jeffrey Bub (University of Maryland)
"Two Dogmas about Quantum Mechanics"
I discuss what Pitowsky (2007) has called two 'dogmas' about quantum mechanics. The first dogma is Bell's assertion that measurement should never be introduced as a primitive in a fundamental mechanical theory like classical or quantum mechanics, but should always be open to a dynamical analysis in principle. The second dogma is the view that the quantum state has an ontological significance analogous to the ontological significance of the classical state (which specifies a complete catalogue of a system's properties), i.e., that the quantum state is a (perhaps incomplete) representation of physical reality. I argue that both dogmas are called into question by a 'no cloning' principle that distinguishes quantum information from classical information. I distinguish two measurement problems: a problem about individual events, which I argue is a pseudo-problem, and a tractable problem about probabilities, which finds a solution in the phenomenon of decoherence.

March 23, 11:00
LARSIM, CEA Orme des Merisiers, bat. 774, Amphi Bloch (directions <http://www-sphti.cea.fr/Phocea-SPhT/ast_visu_spht.php?id_ast=352> )
Jeffrey Bub (University of Maryland)
"Why quantum theory?"
'Why the quantum?' was one of John Wheeler's 'Really Big Questions.' Several authors have recently proposed to derive quantum theory from simple axioms (Hardy quant-ph/0101012), or from broadly information-theoretic principles (Fuchs quant-ph/0205039, Clifton, Bub, Halvorson quant-ph/0211089; Brukner, Zeilinger quant-ph/0212084). Here I consider the significance of such programs for our understanding of quantum correlations.

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Dr. Alexei Grinbaum
CEA-Saclay, SPEC/LARSIM (bât. 772)
91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Tel +33 1 69 08 12 17
Fax +33 1 69 08 87 86
Email alexei.grinbaum at cea.fr 


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