Chaos Out of Order

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With J. Earman, “Chaos Out of Order: Quantum Mechanics, the Correspondence Principle, and Chaos.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 28 (1997): 147-182.

(published version)

Abstract. A vast amount of ink has been spilled in both the physics and the philosophy literature on the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. Important as it is, this problem is but one aspect of the more general issue of how, if at all, classical properties can emerge from the quantum descriptions of physical systems. In this paper we will study another aspect of the more general issue-the emergence of classical chaos-which has been receiving increasing attention from physicists but which has largely been neglected by philosophers of science.

Note. On p. 172 it is asserted that two widely-discussed quantizations of the classical cat map differ in their starting points, one treating the space on which the cat map acts as a configuration space, the other as a phase space. This is incorrect. For discussion of the relation between the quantizations in question, see Lesniewski, Rubin, and Salwen, “Classical limits for quantum maps on the torus.”

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