CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Quantum theory was born in the year 1900 when Max Planck found an answer to the well-known ?ultraviolet catastrophe?. He did so by postulating a discrete character in the function which governed the emission of radiation of a black body. This bold step would eventually transform the knowledge and description of nature in an unimaginable way, transcending the limits of classical thought. Quantum theory is perhaps our best confirmed physical theory. However, in spite of its great empirical effectiveness and the subsequent technological developments that it gave rise to in the XXth century, from the interpretation of the periodic table of elements to cd players, holograms and quantum state teleportation, it stands even today without a universally accepted interpretation. Despite the fact that the majority of physicists are self-proclaimed subscribers to the so called Copenhagen interpretation, there is no such majority among researchers working in the foundations of quantum physics. The problem of finding a viable interpretation of quantum theory has long been sidestepped as being ?misguided?. Yet, no matter how authorative the voice proclaiming the irrelevance of such an undertaking, the number of people drawn towards this problem has only increased over time. The new born theory of quantum information together with the persistent problems in quantum cosmology have in no small way contributed to a renewed interest in the problem. Much progress has been made in the issue of interpreting quantum mechanics since the 1927 Solvay congress in which, as John Bell put it, Niels Bohr managed to convince everybody the job was done. We now know that quantum mechanics does not allow for a local-realistic interpretation; that not all observables may be attributed definite values simultaneously, that single unknown states cannot be cloned, but may be teleported. Yet, despite all the efforts, no single interpretational framework has emerged that provides consistent answers to the many questions that are raised when we attempt to understand the meaning and implications of quantum theory. This is why the phrase of Richard Feynman remains still today an accurate description of the state of affairs in the field: ?I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics? Convinced that this should not stop us from trying, a small but enthusiast group of young researchers working in the foundations of quantum physics started to gather on a regular basis to discuss interpretational issues. The idea was to provide an agreeable context for discussion following the European tradition of Natural Philosophy, which goes back to Kepler, Newton, Leibniz and Kant, continues to Ernst Mach, Henri Poincare and H. Lorentz and which was followed by the main characters of the quantum revolution: Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Louis de Broglie, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli, Max Born and many others. Every year since 2004 and up to the present, young quantum physicists and philosophers from Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and now Spain and Greece) meet in Brussels under the auspices of the Center Leo Apostel (CLEA) to discuss and go still further in their attempt to understand one of the most beautiful theories ever created by man. Even though no member of this group seems convinced that a simple framework will explain it all, they all shared the idea that progress is indeed possible through constructive dialogue between the various critical proponents of the existing interpretations. As Bohr put it, quoted in Heisenberg?s autobiography, Das teil und der ganze, ?It is only when we talk without rest with different concepts about the marvelous relations between the formal laws of quantum theory and the observed phenomena, that these relations become illuminated in all their aspects. Their apparent inherent contradictions acquire strength in our consciousness, and it is possible to transform the structure of thought, which is a necessary presupposition to understand quantum theory?

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