0000000000266427
AUTHOR
Meinard Kuhlmann
showing 5 related works from this author
Quantum Field Theory
2018
Quantum field theory (QFT) shares many of its philosophical problems with quantum mechanics. This applies in particular to the quantum measurement process and the connected interpretive problems, to which QFT contributes hardly any new aspects, let alone solutions. The question as to how the objects described by the theory are spatially embedded was already also discussed for quantum mechanics. However, the new mathematical structure of QFT promises new answers, which renders the spatiotemporal interpretation of QFT the pivotal question. In this chapter, we sketch the mathematical characteristics of QFT and show that a particle as well as a field interpretation breaks down.
On the Exploratory Function of Agent-Based Modeling
2021
Abstract Agent-based models (ABM) derive the behavior of artificial socio-economic entities computationally from the actions of a large number of agents. One objection is that highly idealized ABMs fail to represent the real world in any reasonable sense. Another objection is that they at best show how observed patterns may have come about, because simulations are easy to produce and there is no evidence that this is really what happens. Moreover, different models may well yield the same result. I will rebut these objections by focusing on an often neglected, but crucial function of ABMs. Building on Gelfert’s (2016) account of the exploratory uses of scientific models I show that, in the a…
Chronology and Outlook
2018
The following chronology places emphasis on the basics and on interpretations of quantum physics; it should not be considered to be a history of quantum physics as a whole. In particular, the special developments within quantum field theory, and the advances in particle physics which grew out of them, are not included. However, along with the interpretations which were given a detailed treatment in earlier chapters (Copenhagen, GRW, Everett, Bohm), a number of other approaches are briefly mentioned here. They could not be treated in detail in the rest of the book.
Crossing Boundaries: Why Physics Can Help Understand Economics
2019
Socio-economic systems can often successfully be treated as complex systems in the statistical physics sense. This means that the complexity resides in the emerging dynamical behaviour, not in a complicated composition. In order to understand why physics can help to understand socio-economic phenomena with complex behaviour in this sense, I argue that it is necessary to adopt a structural perspective. Accordingly, one has to modify the notion of mechanistic explanations, partly by broadening it. One crucial tool for finding mechanistic explanations in such a structural sense, are minimal models, i.e. models that abstract from micro details in a drastic way. I will show why mechanistic expla…
A Mechanistic Reading of Quantum Laser Theory
2015
Quantum laser theory proceeds in a way that seems at variance with the mechanistic model of explanation. First, as is typical for a complex systems theory, the detailed behavior of the component parts plays a surprisingly subordinate role. In particular, the so-called “enslaving principle” seems to defy a mechanistic reading. Moreover, being quantum objects, the “parts” of a laser are neither located in space nor describable as separate entities. I want to show that, despite these apparent obstacles, quantum laser theory constitutes a good example of a mechanistic explanation in a quantum physical setting, provided that one broadens the notion of mechanism. One may feel that such adjustment…