Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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SYRP: Intersectional Symposium The Concept of Reality in Physics

SYRP 2: The Concept of Reality in Physics II

SYRP 2.2: Hauptvortrag

Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 17:00–17:30, HSZ 01

Physics and Narrative — •David Albert — Department of Philosophy, Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA

I will discuss a simple, striking, and previously unnoticed tension between quantum-mechanical entanglement and the special theory of relativity. This new tension has nothing to do with the quantum-mechanical non-locality discovered by Bell - it arises (unlike Bell's non-locality) prior to any attempt at solving the measurement problem, in the context of the linear unitary quantum-mechanical equations of motion. I will show (in particular) that quantum-mechanical entanglement, together with the principle of relativity, entails that there can be no comprehensive account of the history of any multiple-particle quantum-mechanical system in the form of a 1-parameter assignment of instantaneous states - it will be shown (that is) how quantum-mechanical entanglement together with the equivalence of all inertial frames of reference entails that there can be no comprehensive account of the history of any such system in the form of a narrative. Some of the implications of this new tension for our understanding of the metaphysics of relativistic quantum theories will be considered.