Henry P. Stapp

The Copenhagen Interpretation

Scientists of the late 1920s, led by Bohr and Heisenberg, proposed a conception of nature radically different from that of their predecessors. The new conception, which grew out of efforts to comprehend the apparently irrational behavior of nature in the realm of quantum effects, was not simply a new catalog of the elementary spacetime realities and their modes of operation. It was essentially a rejection of the presumption that nature could be understood in terms of elementary spacetime realities. According to the new view, the complete description of nature at the atomic level was given by probability functions that referred not to underlying microscopic space-time realities but rather to the macroscopic objects of sense experience. The theoretical structure did not extend down and anchor itself on fundamental microscopic spacetime realities. Instead it turned back and anchored itself in the concrete sense realities that form the basis of social life.

Quantum physics in neuroscience and psychology: a neurophysical model of mind–brain interaction

Neuropsychological research on the neural basis of behaviour generally posits that brain mechanisms will ultimately suffice to explain all psychologically described phenomena. This assumption stems from the idea that the brain is made up entirely of material particles and fields, and that all causal mechanisms relevant to neuroscience can therefore be formulated solely in terms of properties of these elements. Thus, terms having intrinsic mentalistic and/or experiential content (e.g. ‘feeling’, ‘knowing’ and ‘effort’) are not included as primary causal factors. This theoretical restriction is motivated primarily by ideas about the natural world that have been known to be fundamentally incorrect for more than three-quarters of a century. Contemporary basic physical theory differs profoundly from classic physics on the important matter of how the consciousness of human agents enters into the structure of empirical phenomena. The new principles contradict the older idea that local mechanical processes alone can account for the structure of all observed empirical data. Contemporary physical theory brings directly and irreducibly into the overall causal structure certain psychologically described choices made by human agents about how they will act. This key development in basic physical theory is applicable to neuroscience, and it provides neuroscientists and psychologists with an alternative conceptual framework for describing neural processes. Indeed, owing to certain structural features of ion channels critical to synaptic function, contemporary physical theory must in principle be used when analysing human brain dynamics. The new framework, unlike its classic-physics-based predecessor, is erected directly upon, and is compatible with, the prevailing principles of physics. It is able to represent more adequately than classic concepts the neuroplastic mechanisms relevant to the growing number of empirical studies of the capacity of directed attention and mental effort to systematically alter brain function.

Nonlocal character of quantum theory

According to a common conception of causality, the truth of a statement that refers only to phenomena confined to an earlier time cannot depend upon which measurement an experimenter will freely choose to perform at a later time. According to a common idea of the theory of relativity this causality condition should be valid in all Lorentz frames. It is shown here that this concept of relativistic causality is incompatible with some simple predictions of quantum theory.

Quantum Theory and the Role of Mind in Nature

Orthodox Copenhagen quantum theory renounces the quest to understand the reality in which we are imbedded, and settles for practical rules that describe connections between our observations. Many physicist have believed that this renunciation of the attempt describe nature herself was premature, and John von Neumann, in a major work, reformulated quantum theory as theory of the evolving objective universe. In the course of his work he converted to a benefit what had appeared to be a severe deficiency of the Copenhagen interpretation, namely its introduction into physical theory of the human observers. He used this subjective element of quantum theory to achieve a significant advance on the main problem in philosophy, which is to understand the relationship between mind and matter. That problem had been tied closely to physical theory by the works of Newton and Descartes. The present work examines the major problems that have appeared to block the development of von Neumanns theory into a fully satisfactory theory of Nature, and proposes solutions to these problems.

Whiteheadian approach to quantum theory and the generalized Bell's theorem

The model of the world proposed by Whitehead provides a natural theoretical framework in which to imbed quantum theory. This model accords with the ontological ideas of Heisenberg, and also with Einsteins view that physical theories should refer nominally to the objective physical situation, rather than our knowledge of that system. Whitehead imposed on his model the relativistic requirement that what happens in any given spacetime region be determined only by what has happened in its absolute past, i.e., in the backward light-cone drawn from that region. This requirement must be modified, for it is inconsistent with the implications of quantum theory expressed by a generalized version of Bells theorem. Revamping the causal spacetime structure of the Whitehead-Heisenberg ontology to bring it into accord with the generalized Bells theorem creates the possibility of a nonlocal causal covariant theory that accords with the statistical prediction of quantum theory.

Macroscopic causality and physical region analyticity in

An equivalence is proved between a certain macroscopic causality condition and the normal analytic structure of the physical-regionS-matrix. The normal analytic structure is this: each scattering function has physical-region singularities only on positive-α Landau surfaces and near these surfaces it is the limit from certain well-defined directions of a unique analytic function. The macroscopic causality condition is formulated in terms ofS-matrix concepts. It expresses the requirement that in an appropriate classical macroscopic limit all transition amplitudes fall off in the way indicated by classical estimates. This result gives, on the one hand, a physical basis for the basic physical-region analyticity properties of theS matrix. On the other hand, it gives, alternatively, a basis for a space-time description of phenomena starting from momentum space properties having noa priori space-time content.

S

A locality property expressing the idea that causal influences can propagate only forward in time, from earlier cause to later effect, and no faster than light is shown to be mathematically incompatible with certain predictions of quantum theory. The contradiction is proved without invoking any additional assumptions such as realism or hidden variables that contravene conventional quantum thinking. The failure of this locality property refines ideas about the theory of relativity, and opens the way to an objective interpretation of quantum theory that may expand its domain of applicability outside the one circumscribed by the orthodox Copenhagen interpretation.

-matrix theory

Bells theorem is used to guide the formulation of a unified theory of reality that incorporates the basic principles of relativistic quantum theory.

BELL'S THEOREM AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF QUANTUM PHYSICS

To fully appreciate the significance of the basis problem mentioned by Zurek, and of the impact of quantum decoherence on fundamental issues, one needs to understand certain subtle aspects of the connection between classical and quantum mechanics. This chapter, which is more technical than the others, explains these aspects, and, with the aid of some pictures, their relevance to the basis and decoherence problems.

Theory of reality

Two causality conditions that refer only to mass‐shell quantities are formulated and their consequences explored. The first condition, called weak asymptotic causality, expresses the requirement that some interaction between the initial particles must occur before the last interaction from which final particles emerge. This condition is shown to imply that if a two‐body scattering function is analytic except for singularities in the energy variable at normal thresholds, then (a) the physical scattering functions in two adjacent parts of the physical region separated by any normal threshold are parts of a single analytic function; (b) the path of continuation joining these two parts bypasses the singularity in the upper half‐plane of the energy variable; and (c) the integral over the physical function can be represented as an integral over a contour that is distorted into the upper‐half energy plane (hence not, for example, by a principal‐value integral). Singularities possessing finite derivatives of all ...