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Correspondence Principle as Equivalence of Categories

2015/06/01 by Arkady Bolotin, Bolotin, Arkady
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Mathematical Physics (math-ph) #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #math-ph #math.MP #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1506.00428

Major revision of the previous draft; 8 pages

arxiv created 2015/08/24 · arxiv updated 2015/08/25

Abstract

If quantum mechanics were to be applicable to macroscopic objects, classical mechanics would have to be a limiting case of quantum mechanics. Then the category Set that packages classical mechanics has to be in some sense a 'limiting case' of the category Hilb packaging quantum mechanics. Following from this assumption, quantum-classical correspondence can be considered as a mapping of the category Hilb to the category Set, i.e., a functor from Hilb to Set, taking place in the macroscopic limit. As a procedure, which takes us from an object of the category Hilb (i.e., a Hilbert space) in the macroscopic limit to an object of the category Set (i.e., a set of values that describe the configuration of a system), this functor must take a finite number of steps in order to make the equivalence of Hilb and Set verifiable. However, as it is shown in the present paper, such a constructivist requirement cannot be met in at least one case of an Ising model of a spin glass. This could mean that it is impossible to demonstrate the emergence of classicality totally from the formalism of standard quantum mechanics.

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