37 found
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  1.  93
    Interpreting Quantum Theories: The Art of the Possible.Laura Ruetsche - 2011 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
    Philosophers of quantum mechanics have generally addressed exceedingly simple systems. Laura Ruetsche offers a much-needed study of the interpretation of more complicated systems, and an underexplored family of physical theories, such as quantum field theory and quantum statistical mechanics, showing why they repay philosophical attention. She guides those familiar with the philosophy of ordinary QM into the philosophy of 'QM infinity', by presenting accessible introductions to relevant technical notions and the foundational questions they frame--and then develops and defends answers to (...)
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  2.  81
    Infinite idealizations in science: an introduction.Samuel C. Fletcher, Patricia Palacios, Laura Ruetsche & Elay Shech - 2019 - Synthese 196 (5):1657-1669.
    We offer a framework for organizing the literature regarding the debates revolving around infinite idealizations in science, and a short summary of the contributions to this special issue.
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  3. Renormalization Group Realism: The Ascent of Pessimism.Laura Ruetsche - 2018 - Philosophy of Science 85 (5):1176-1189.
    One realist response to the pessimistic meta-induction distinguishes idle theoretical wheels from aspects of successful theories we can expect to persist and espouses realism about the latter. Implementing the response requires a strategy for identifying the distinguished aspects. The strategy I will call renormalization group realism has the virtue of directly engaging the gears of our best current physics—perturbative quantum field theories. I argue that the strategy, rather than disarming the skeptical possibilities evinced by the pessimistic meta-induction, forces them to (...)
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  4. Interpreting quantum field theory.Laura Ruetsche - 2002 - Philosophy of Science 69 (2):348-378.
    The availability of unitarily inequivalent representations of the canonical commutation relations constituting a quantization of a classical field theory raises questions about how to formulate and pursue quantum field theory. In a minimally technical way, I explain how these questions arise and how advocates of the Hilbert space and of the algebraic approaches to quantum theory might answer them. Where these answers differ, I sketch considerations for and against each approach, as well as considerations which might temper their apparent rivalry.
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  5. The Shaky Game +25, or: on locavoracity.Laura Ruetsche - 2015 - Synthese 192 (11):3425-3442.
    Taking Arthur Fine’s The Shaky Game as my inspiration, and the recent 25th anniversary of the publication of that work as the occasion to exercise that inspiration, I sketch an alternative to the “Naturalism” prevalent among philosophers of physics. Naturalism is a methodology eventuating in a metaphysics. The methodology is to seek the deep framework assumptions that make the best sense of science; the metaphysics is furnished by those assumptions and supported by their own support of science. The alternative presented (...)
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  6. The Hawking Information Loss Paradox: The Anatomy of a Controversy.Gordon Belot, John Earman & Laura Ruetsche - 1999 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 50 (2):189-229.
    Stephen Hawking has argued that universes containing evaporating black holes can evolve from pure initial states to mixed final ones. Such evolution is non-unitary and so contravenes fundamental quantum principles on which Hawking's analysis was based. It disables the retrodiction of the universe's initial state from its final one, and portends the time-asymmetry of quantum gravity. Small wonder that Hawking's paradox has met with considerable resistance. Here we use a simple result for C*-algebras to offer an argument for pure-to-mixed state (...)
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  7. A matter of degree: Putting unitary inequivalence to work.Laura Ruetsche - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (5):1329-1342.
    If a classical system has infinitely many degrees of freedom, its Hamiltonian quantization need not be unique up to unitary equivalence. I sketch different approaches (Hilbert space and algebraic) to understanding the content of quantum theories in light of this non‐uniqueness, and suggest that neither approach suffices to support explanatory aspirations encountered in the thermodynamic limit of quantum statistical mechanics.
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  8. Johnny’s So Long at the Ferromagnet.Laura Ruetsche - 2006 - Philosophy of Science 73 (5):473-486.
    Starting from the standard quantum formalism for a single spin 1/2 system (e.g., an electron), this essay develops a model rich enough not only to afford an explication of symmetry breaking but also to frame questions about how to circumscribe physical possibility on behalf of theories that countenance symmetry breaking.
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  9. Perturbing realism.Laura Ruetsche - 2020 - In Juha Saatsi & Steven French (eds.), Scientific Realism and the Quantum. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     
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  10.  73
    Fulling Non‐uniqueness and the Unruh Effect: A Primer on Some Aspects of Quantum Field Theory.Aristidis Arageorgis, John Earman & Laura Ruetsche - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (1):164-202.
    We discuss the intertwined topics of Fulling non‐uniqueness and the Unruh effect. The Fulling quantization, which is in some sense the natural one for an observer uniformly accelerated through Minkowski spacetime to adopt, is often heralded as a quantization of the Klein‐Gordon field which is both physically relevant and unitarily inequivalent to the standard Minkowski quantization. We argue that the Fulling and Minkowski quantizations do not constitute a satisfactory example of physically relevant, unitarily inequivalent quantizations, and indicate what it would (...)
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  11.  71
    Interpreting Probabilities in Quantum Field Theory and Quantum Statistical Mechanics.Laura Ruetsche & John Earman - 2011 - In Claus Beisbart & Stephan Hartmann (eds.), Probabilities in Physics. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press. pp. 263.
    Philosophical accounts of quantum theory commonly suppose that the observables of a quantum system form a Type-I factor von Neumann algebra. Such algebras always have atoms, which are minimal projection operators in the case of quantum mechanics. However, relativistic quantum field theory and the thermodynamic limit of quantum statistical mechanics make extensive use of von Neumann algebras of more general types. This chapter addresses the question whether interpretations of quantum probability devised in the usual manner continue to apply in the (...)
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  12.  83
    Why be normal?Laura Ruetsche - 2011 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 42 (2):107-115.
    A normal state on a von Neumann algebra defines a countably additive probability measure over its projection lattice. The von Neumann algebras familiar from ordinary QM are algebras of all the bounded operators on a Hilbert space H, aka Type I factor von Neumann algebras. Their normal states are density operator states, and can be pure or mixed. In QFT and the thermodynamic limit of QSM, von Neumann algebras of more exotic types abound. Type III von Neumann algebras, for instance, (...)
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  13.  58
    Weyling the time away: the non-unitary implementability of quantum field dynamics on curved spacetime.Aristidis Arageorgis, John Earman & Laura Ruetsche - 2002 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 33 (2):151-184.
    The simplest case of quantum field theory on curved spacetime—that of the Klein–Gordon field on a globally hyperbolic spacetime—reveals a dilemma: In generic circumstances, either there is no dynamics for this quantum field, or else there is a dynamics that is not unitarily implementable. We do not try to resolve the dilemma here, but endeavour to spell out the consequences of seizing one or the other horn of the dilemma.
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  14. Relativistic Invariance and Modal Interpretations.John Earman & Laura Ruetsche - 2005 - Philosophy of Science 72 (4):557-583.
    A number of arguments have been given to show that the modal interpretation of ordinary nonrelativistic quantum mechanics cannot be consistently extended to the relativistic setting. We find these arguments inconclusive. However, there is a prima facie reason to think that a tension exists between the modal interpretation and relativistic invariance; namely, the best candidate for a modal interpretation adapted to relativistic quantum field theory, a prescription due to Rob Clifton, comes out trivial when applied to a number of systems (...)
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  15.  46
    Contingent Natures and Virtuous Knowers.Rebecca Kukla & Laura Ruetsche - 2002 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 32 (3):389-418.
    When Sandra Harding called for an epistemology of science whose systematic attention to the gendered Status of epistemic agents renders it ‘less partial and distorted’ than ‘traditional’ epistemologies, some commentators recoiled in horror. Propelled by ‘a mad form of the genetic fallacy’ they said, she descends ‘the slide to an arational account of science.’ On a less melodramatic reading, feminist epistemologies such as Harding's advocate not irrationalism, but senses of rationality more expanded than those which they associate with ‘traditional’ epistemology.
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  16.  37
    Virtue and Contingent History: Possibilities for Feminist Epistemology.Laura Ruetsche - 2004 - Hypatia 19 (1):73-101.
    Some feminist epistemologists make the radical claim that there are varieties of epistemically valid warrant that agents access only through having lived particular types of contingent history, varieties of epistemic warrant to which, moreover, the confirmation-theoretic accounts of warrant favored by some traditional epistemologists are inapplicable. I offer Aristotelian virtue as a model for warrant of this sort, and use loosely Aristotelian vocabulary to express, and begin to evaluate, a range of feminist epistemological positions.
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  17.  38
    Intrinsically mixed states: an appreciation.Laura Ruetsche - 2004 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35 (2):221-239.
    An “intrinsically mixed” state is a mixed state of a system that is ‘orthogonal’ to every pure state of that system. Although the presence of such states in the quantum theories of infinite systems is well known to those who work with such theories, intrinsically mixed states are virtually unheralded in the philosophical literature. Rob Clifton was thoroughly familiar with intrinsically mixed states. I aim here to introduce them to a wider audience—and to encourage that audience to cultivate their acquaintance (...)
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  18.  14
    Interpreting Quantum Theories.Laura Ruetsche - 2002 - In Peter K. Machamer & Michael Silberstein (eds.), The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of science. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. pp. 199–226.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction: Interpretation Bohr and Complementarity The Einstein‐Podolsky‐Rosen (EPR) Argument Bell's Theorem and Other No‐Go Results The Measurement Problem Future Directions: Interpreting QFT.
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  19.  10
    1. Preface Preface (pp. i-ii).Laura Ruetsche, Chris Smeenk, Branden Fitelson, Patrick Maher, Martin Thomson‐Jones, Bas C. van Fraassen, Steven French, Juha Saatsi, Stathis Psillos & Katherine Brading - 2006 - Philosophy of Science 73 (5):i-ii.
  20.  93
    Van Fraassen on preparation and measurement.Laura Ruetsche - 1996 - Philosophy of Science 63 (3):346.
    Van Fraassen's 1991 modal interpretation of Quantum Mechanics offers accounts of measurement and state preparation. I argue that both accounts overlook a class of interactions I call General Unitary Measurements, or GUMs. Ironically, GUMs are significant for van Fraassen's account of measurement because they challenge it, and significant for his account of preparation because they simplify it. Van Fraassen's oversight prompts a question about modal interpretations: developed to account for ideal measurement outcomes, can they consistently account as well for the (...)
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  21. Philosophical Aspects of Quantum Field Theory: II.Laura Ruetsche - 2012 - Philosophy Compass 7 (8):571-584.
    According to a regnant criterion of physical equivalence for quantum theories, a quantum field theory (QFT) typically admits continuously many physically inequivalent realizations. This, the second of a two-part introduction to topics in the philosophy of QFT, continues the investigation of this alarming circumstance. It begins with a brief catalog of quantum field theoretic examples of this non-uniqueness, then presents the basics of the algebraic approach to quantum theories, which discloses a structure common even to ‘physically inequivalent’ realizations of a (...)
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  22.  99
    Philosophical Aspects of Quantum Field Theory: I.Laura Ruetsche - 2012 - Philosophy Compass 7 (8):559-570.
    This is the first of a two-part introduction to some interpretive questions that arise in connection with quantum field theories (QFTs). Some of these questions are continuous with those familiar from the discussion of ordinary non-relativistic quantum mechanics (QM). For example, questions about locality can be rigorously posed and fruitfully pursued within the framework of QFT. A stark disanalogy between QFTs and ordinary QM – the former, but not the latter, typically admit infinitely many putatively physically inequivalent realizations – prompts (...)
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  23.  15
    The perils of approximate ontology.Laura Ruetsche - 2024 - Synthese 204 (4):1-29.
    The mathematical centerpiece of many physical theories is a Lagrangian. So let’s imagine that there’s some Lagrangian we trust. Should that induce us to endorse an ontology? If so, what ontology, and how is it related to our trustworthy Lagrangian? I’ll examine these questions in the context of quantum field theoretic Lagrangians. When these Lagrangians are understood as “merely effective,” a variety of approximations figure in the physics they frame. So do distinctive grounds for trusting those Lagrangians, grounds recent literature (...)
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  24.  89
    Changing the subject: Redei on causal dependence and screening off in relativistic quantum field theory.Rob Clifton & Laura Ruetsche - 1999 - Philosophy of Science 66 (3):169.
    In a pair of articles (1996, 1997) and in his recent book (1998), Miklos Redei has taken enormous strides toward characterizing the conditions under which relativistic quantum field theory is a safe setting for the deployment of causal talk. Here, we challenge the adequacy of the accounts of causal dependence and screening off on which rests the relevance of Redei's theorems to the question of causal good behavior in the theory.
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  25. Author Meets Critics: Jill North, Physics, Structure, and Reality.David John Baker, Wayne Myrvold, Jill North & Laura Ruetsche - manuscript
    Comments and replies from the 2021 Eastern APA book symposium on Jill North's Physics, Structure, and Reality.
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  26.  85
    Modal semantics, modal dynamics and the problem of state preparation.Laura Ruetsche - 2003 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 17 (1):25 – 41.
    It has been suggested that the Modal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (QM) is "incomplete" if it lacks a dynamics for possessed values. I argue that this is only one of two possible attitudes one might adopt toward a Modal Interpretation without dynamics. According to the other attitude, such an interpretation is a complete interpretation of QM as standardly formulated, an interpretation whose innovation is to attempt to make sense of the quantum realm without the expedient of novel physics. Then I (...)
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  27.  6
    Physics and Method.Laura Ruetsche - 2016 - In Herman Cappelen, Tamar Gendler & John Hawthorne (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
    This article deals with the methodologies used in philosophy of physics. It begins by considering some methodological inclinations at large in the community of philosophers of physics in order to convey some sense of the plethora of methodologies, self-conscious and otherwise, to be found at the interfaces of philosophy, mathematics, and physics. It then describes and defends a methodological inclination to understand and pursue the project of interpreting physical theories in a way that runs counter to a methodological disposition prevalent (...)
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  28.  14
    UnBorn: Probability in Bohmian Mechanics.Laura Ruetsche - 2023 - Philosophy of Physics 1 (1).
    Why are quantum probabilities encoded in measures corresponding to wave functions, rather than by a more general class of measures? Call this question WHY BORN? I argue that orthodox quantum mechanics has a compelling answer to WHY BORN? but Bohmian mechanics might not. I trace Bohmian difficulties with WHY BORN? to its antistructuralism, its denial of physical significance to the algebraic structure of quantum observables, and I propose other cases where Bohmian antistructuralism might have an explanatory cost.
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  29.  78
    When the Concrete is Hard.Laura Ruetsche - 2021 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 103 (2):481-487.
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Volume 103, Issue 2, Page 481-487, September 2021.
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  30. 10. Can Philosophy Offer Help in Resolving Contemporary Biological Controversies?Laura Ruetsche, Chris Smeenk, Branden Fitelson, Patrick Maher, Martin Thomson‐Jones, Bas C. van Fraassen, Steven French, Juha Saatsi, Stathis Psillos & Katherine Brading - 2006 - In Borchert (ed.), Philosophy of Science. MacMillan.
  31.  11
    Science at Centurys End: Philosophical Questions on the Progress and Limits of S.Martin Carrier, Laura Ruetsche & Gerald J. Massey (eds.) - 2000 - University of Pittsburgh Press.
    To most laypersons and scientists, science and progress appear to go hand in hand, yet philosophers and historians of science have long questioned the inevitability of this pairing. As we take leave of a century acclaimed for scientific advances and progress, Science at Century's End, the eighth volume of the Pittsburgh-Konstanz Series in the Philosophy and History of Science, takes the reader to the heart of this important matter. Subtitled Philosophical Questions on the Progress and Limits of Science, this timely (...)
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  32.  14
    Foundations of Statistical Physics, Spacetime Theories, and Quantum Field Theory-Changing the Subject: Redei on Causal Dependence and Screening Off in Relativistic Quantum Field Theory.Rob Clifton & Laura Ruetsche - 1999 - Philosophy of Science 66 (3):S156-S169.
    In a pair of articles and in his recent book, Miklos Redei has taken enormous strides toward characterizing the conditions under which relativistic quantum field theory is a safe setting for the deployment of causal talk. Here, we challenge the adequacy of the accounts of causal dependence and screening off on which rests the relevance of Redei's theorems to the question of causal good behavior in the theory.
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  33.  13
    (1 other version)Interpreting Bodies.Laura Ruetsche - 2000 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 31 (3):413-417.
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  34.  46
    Infinitely Challenging: Pitowsky’s Subjective Interpretation and the Physics of Infinite Systems.Laura Ruetsche & John Earman - 2012 - In Yemima Ben-Menahem & Meir Hemmo (eds.), Probability in Physics. Springer. pp. 219--232.
    On Itamar Pitowsky’s subjective interpretation of quantum mechanics, “the Hilbert space formalism of quantum mechanics [QM] is just a new kind of probability theory”, one whose probabilities correspond to odds rational agents would accept on the outcomes of gambles concerning quantum event structures. Our aim here is to ask whether Pitowsky’s approach can be extended from its original context, of quantum theories for systems with an finite number of degrees of freedom, to systems with an infinite number of degrees of (...)
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  35. On the Verge of Collapse: Modal Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics.Laura Ruetsche - 1995 - Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh
    The conjunction of Schrodinger dynamics and the usual way of thinking about the conditions under which quantum systems exhibit determinate values implies that measurements don't have outcomes. The orthodox fix to this quantum measurement problem is von Neumann's postulate of measurement collapse, which suspends Schrodinger dynamics in measurement contexts. Contending that the fundamental dynamical law of quantum theory breaks down every time we test the theory empirically, the collapse postulate is unsatisfactory. Recently philosophers and physicists have proposed a less violent (...)
     
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  36.  57
    (4 other versions)Review. Jeffrey Bub. Interpreting the Quantum World. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997.Laura Ruetsche - 1998 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (4):637-641.
  37.  28
    (1 other version)Book review: Elizabeth Potter. Gender and Boyle's law of gases. Bloomington: Indiana university press. 2001. [REVIEW]Laura Ruetsche - 2004 - Hypatia 19 (1):297-302.