论文标题
基本物理学有因果关系吗？过程矩阵和量子因果建模的新见解
Is There Causation in Fundamental Physics? New Insights from Process Matrices and Quantum Causal Modelling
论文作者
论文摘要
在本文中，我们着手了解过程矩阵形式主义和量子因果建模计划的重要性，涉及有关因果关系在基本物理学中的作用的持续争议。我们认为，该过程矩阵程序正确地识别了“因果秩序”的概念，该概念在基本物理学中起着重要作用，但是该概念比因果关系的常识性概念弱，因为它不涉及不对称。我们认为因果秩序在接地更熟悉的因果现象中起着重要作用。然后，我们将这些结论应用于量子基础中的因果建模计划，认为由于无标志量子相关性无法显示因果关系，因此不应使用经典的因果模型对其进行分析。这解决了一个关于如何在无信号相关性的经典因果模型中解释微调的开放问题。最后，我们观察到因果建模的量子概括可以与标准因果推理起类似的功能作用，但我们强调，这种功能表征并不意味着量子因果模型提供了量子过程的新颖解释。
In this article we set out to understand the significance of the process matrix formalism and the quantum causal modelling programme for ongoing disputes about the role of causation in fundamental physics. We argue that the process matrix programme has correctly identified a notion of 'causal order' which plays an important role in fundamental physics, but this notion is weaker than the common-sense conception of causation because it does not involve asymmetry. We argue that causal order plays an important role in grounding more familiar causal phenomena. Then we apply these conclusions to the causal modelling programme within quantum foundations, arguing that since no-signalling quantum correlations cannot exhibit causal order, they should not be analysed using classical causal models. This resolves an open question about how to interpret fine-tuning in classical causal models of no-signalling correlations. Finally we observe that a quantum generalization of causal modelling can play a similar functional role to standard causal reasoning, but we emphasize that this functional characterisation does not entail that quantum causal models offer novel explanations of quantum processes.
