• The Foundations of Physics @Harvard series is co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy
• This is a free Zoom event (no registration fee)
• The meeting ID and password will be shared with those who register
• Each talk will be 1 hour, followed by a 5-minute break and then 55 minutes for questions
• You can find more events in this series in the navigation panel on the left
• You can visit the YouTube channel here

Questions or comments: Jacob Barandes, firstname_lastname(at)harvard.edu (organizer)

12:00–1:00
Talk
Video (YouTube), Slides (PDF), Paper (PDF)

1:00–1:05
Break

1:05–2:00
Open Discussion and Q&A

Abstract

In this talk, I will present a novel, exact correspondence between stochastic-process theory and quantum theory. On the one hand, this stochastic-quantum correspondence means that one can use the Hilbert-space tools of quantum theory to model real-world stochastic processes beyond the usual Markov approximation, generalizing previous stochastic approaches to quantum theory as well as potentially opening up new applications for quantum simulators and quantum computers. On the other hand, the stochastic-quantum correspondence implies that one can replace the instrumentalist textbook axioms of quantum theory with much more physically transparent axioms. The result is a clearer physical picture underlying quantum theory that is consistent with the standard no-go theorems, helps clarify the meaning of signature features of quantum theory like interference and entanglement, and has potential implications for addressing the measurement problem.