Toward Implementing Heisenberg's Distinction in the Quantum Formalism

Abstract

"In his book "Physics and Philosophy", Heisenberg distinguished between the Quantum World as a realm of potentialities and the classical world as a realm of facts. As a matter of physics, his distinction has so far been barren, likely in part because there is no known underlying reason for why it needs to be there. In this talk, I report on a recent result which suggests such a reason, motivating the implementation of his distinction at the level of the quantum formalism. The underlying distinction offers a possibility for clarifying some aspects of the foundations of quantum mechanics and suggests, at least in principle, a novel and unexpected experimental prediction."