Epistemic Horizons and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

In-principle restrictions on the amount of information that can be gathered about a system have been proposed as a foundational principle in several recent reconstructions of the formalism of quantum mechanics. However, it seems unclear precisely why one should be thus restricted. We investigate the notion of paradoxical self-reference as a possible origin of such epistemic horizons by means of a fixed-point theorem in Cartesian closed categories due to F. W. Lawvere that illuminates and unifies the different perspectives on self-reference.

arXiv comment17 pages; forthcoming in Foundations of Physics

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Cited by in corpus (7)

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• The Quantum Rashomon Effect: A Strengthened Frauchiger-Renner Argument
• Epistemic Horizons: This Sentence is $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|True⟩+|False⟩)$
• A Quantum Gödelian Hunch