Persistence and reidentifiability in systems of identical quantum particles: towards a post-atomistic conception of matter (7 grudnia, g. 15:00 sala 4)
Philip Goyal, University at Albany, SUNY, USA
Persistence and reidentifiability in systems of identical quantum particles: towards a post-atomistic conception of matter
The quantum symmetrization procedure that is used to handle systems of identical quantum particles brings into question whether the elementary constituents of matter, such as electrons, have the fundamental characteristics of persistence and reidentifiability that are attributed to classical particles. However, we presently lack a coherent conception of matter composed of entities that lack one or both of these fundamental characteristics [1]. In particular, the canonical view that identical particles are indistinguishable is at odds with operational assumptions (of persistence and reidentifiability) implicit in the experimental procedures used to investigate the microphysical realm. We also lack a clear a priori understanding of why systems of identical particles (as opposed to non-identical particles) require special mathematical treatment, and this only in the quantum mechanical (as opposed to classical mechanical) setting.
Here, on the basis of a conceptual analysis of a recent mathematical reconstruction of the quantum symmetrization procedure [2, 3], we argue that the need for the symmetrization procedure originates in the confluence of identicality and the active nature of the quantum measurement process. We propose a conception in which detection-events are ontologically primary, while the notion of individually persistent object is relegated to merely one way of bringing order to these events.
From this perspective, we show that the symmetrization procedure is not a mathematical expression of the idea that identical particles are indistinguishable. Rather, it is a formal means of synthesizing two different object-models of the same detection-event data. Consequently, indices in a symmetrized state do not refer unequivocally to particles, and non-symmetric measurement operators are physically meaningful.