Questions tagged [determinism]
The determinism tag has no usage guidance.
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If we copy-paste the universe, would it follow the same trajectory? [closed]
If we would copy-paste the universe in a single instant, would they follow the same trajectory? If yes. would this mean that the trajectory of our universe (and our self) is set in stone? If no. What ...
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Are fluctuations in a quantum field truly random or merely unpredictable? That is, can we prove that quantum theory is not deterministic? [duplicate]
I've seen mathematical proposals for determining if a series of numbers are random or not. I've also seen justifications for why the fluctuations in a quantum field appear to be random. But I have not ...
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Could number-theoretic "statistical independence" results (e.g. Chowla's conjecture) be used to disprove superdeterminism?
I will admit I only have the most basic understanding of superdeterminism, from this PBSspacetime video, in particular at this link https://youtu.be/JnKzt6Xq-w4?t=584 (I have provided the relevant ...
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Why can't we run the laws of physics backwards and forwards in time infinitely?
So assuming we know all the laws of physics in differential equation form, and I have an estimate for the current large scale state of the universe (whatever standard assumptions/data cosmologists use ...
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Toy example of superdeterminism using Rule 30
From what I understand of Bell's Theorem, it requires giving up local realism or embracing superdeterminism. I still haven't been able to understand why superdeterminism gets such a bad rap, so I've ...
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Per Newtonian mechanics, a coin toss exhibits deterministic chaos theory, but could relativity cause a probabilistic outcome of a coin toss?
It took me a long time to accept that a coin toss boils down to deterministic chaos theory. For example, the typical near 50/50 odds for outcomes of heads or tails results from complex initial ...
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Chaos theory: What exactly drives the future outcome?
Chaos theory states that we can't predict future because we can't measure initial conditions of a system to infinite precision. I get that.
That alone doesn't mean that the future is not determined, ...
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Can we know the future with quantum mechanics?
I have created a test scenario.
Please see the image below. Two men working on this test, Erdal and Kervan.
Erdal is in the world, but kervan is 10 light seconds far from the world.
The light source ...
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Is determinism broken in special relativity?
Under classical mechanics, in an isolated system everything is deterministic given some initial conditions. Otherwise, we would have to consider some probabilities of interactions with the outside on ...
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Is this a correct example of a superdeterminism?
I'm trying to wrap my head around the recent 2022 nobel price and learned about the superdeterminism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdeterminism) loop hole in the now famous Aspect experiment (...
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Uncomputability of the $n$-body problem
The gravitational $n$-body problem is well known to be uncomputable; one can not find a general algorithm that works in all cases that can predict the trajectories of $n$n-bodies. However, in contrast ...
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Superdeterminism and quantum mechanics
I have two questions about superdeterminism: Does superdeterminism allow for free will? Is superdeterminism a viable interpretation of quantum mechanics?
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Is there any paper/experiment on the deterministic behavior of coin-tossing?
I do not have background in Physics but Statistics. I am working on a small project on philosophy of probabilistic modeling.
Of course, we often model coin-tossing as if it comes from a Bernoulli ...
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Does the human brain use random number generators? [duplicate]
Neurons fire depending on the impulses they get from other neurons. This seems to be 'deterministic'. However, sometimes it might be useful to use random processes instead. Does the human brain have ...
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If you knew perfectly knew the initial state of everything, could you predict everything? [closed]
Due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, one cannot know the complete state of a system, or particle. And so, unable to know fully certainly the state of a system, it is impossible to perfectly ...
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Does quantum decoherence desctibe a deterministic universe?
QM describes a system, whose state evolve unitarily, which is deterministic. The apparent non-determinism comes from the measurement problem, where the state is projected to some subspace in a ...
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Entropy of a deterministic reversible system
Suppose a deterministic reversible system evolving from state A of gas located in a small bottle in an otherwise empty room, to state B where the gas is dispersed throughout the room.
Why is the ...
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Is photon path pre-defined at the time of emission? [duplicate]
I am probably missing an important aspect here, but here are two thought experiments I came up with that make me quite a bit confused. Can some one explain to me, if I am missing any important aspects ...
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Does the many worlds interpretation not violate determinism?
Okay, consider me dumb here. I’m not a physicist but the question genuinely bugs me and i think there’s a gap in my understanding. But my question presupposes determinism as does the many worlds ...
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Why does Norton's thought experiment require a specific dome shape?
Norton's dome famously shows that Newtonian mechanics (as a mathematical model) is non-deterministic. To do this, a very specific potential is chosen. But why does this not work with any dome shape, e....
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Revolving pendulum contradicts laplace determinism
A question came once into my mind
There is a pendulum having length of string 1metre and was initially at rest. Now the point of suspension suddenly starts to move in uniform horizontal circular ...
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Is superdeterminism just retrocausality?
I watched this YouTube video by Sabine Hossenfelder to try and better understand superdeterminism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytyjgIyegDI
(Note: Physics begins around 8:12, before that she's ...
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About the determinism of the universe and decidability? [closed]
Note: I have a math/CS background and only basic knowledge of physics. Decidability has to be intended from a logic perspective.
To the best of my knowledge, we have no proof if the universe is either ...
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Is Norton's dome valid (or does $\frac{d^2 \vec{p}}{dt^2} = \vec{0} \implies \frac{d^n \vec{p}}{dt^n} = \vec{0} \ \forall \ n > 2$)?
I came across Norton's dome and I don't agree that it proves anything.
First, here's an obviously ridiculous and completely nonsensical example that I constructed from thinking about simple harmonic ...
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Is there consensus among physicists that reality is fundamentally deterministic? [duplicate]
Does Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle mean that the universe cannot deterministically be predicted by observers, or does it mean that the universe is inherently indeterministic, meaning that the ...
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Why is acceleration not usually count as a state? [duplicate]
Position, velocity and acceleration can vary over time. Although only position and velocity are usually count as states of the ODEs. Which makes me wonder why acceleration is not taken as a state?
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Are Superdeterminism and Many Worlds compatible quantum interpretations?
Pretty much as my title says... are Superdeterminism and Many Worlds compatible quantum interpretations? It seems to me that they might be compatible, or close to it, maybe even the stronger statement ...
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Halting-problem-like paradox due to predictability
Let's assume that the universe and humans are deterministic, and that I can perfectly predict the future based on the laws of physics and the environment. This means I can predict what you will do ...
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Is radioactive decay deterministic? [duplicate]
Suppose you know at time $t$ that there is some atomic nucleus that radioactively decays.
If you were to magically roll back the universe to the exact same state and let it continue as per usual ...
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Is there any concept in physics, that could potentially in the future get rid of "randomness"? [duplicate]
This question was very interesting to a non physicists like me question (I am computer scientist and I work with "pure random" crypto hardware that uses quantum phenomena) Obviously string ...
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Is a coin toss pseudo-random or truly random? [duplicate]
I wonder if a coin toss is pseudo-random or truly random. Sure, you could say that a coin toss is pseudo-random because you don't know the speed of the coin or its rotation, but if you were to include ...
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Why is Norton's dome said to exhibit a non-deterministic behavior?
I have seen quite a few times the assertion "Norton's dome demonstrates non-determinism of ***" (replace *** by "Newtonian mechanics" or something else), cf. e.g. this Phys.SE post....
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Are quantum experiments superdeterministic? [closed]
Lately this recent video of Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder made me think if this theory deserves a serious review and has substantial ground.
What are the rigorous arguments against this theory today?
Please ...
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Is the Past indeterministic?
Could multiple distinct past states of the universe have lead to the same present? Whether the difference is almost trivial or not is fine, though the greater the difference can be, the more ...
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Is Laplace’s demon compatible with other interpretations of quantum mechanics?
We know that Laplace’s demon is incompatible with the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, because the Copenhagen interpretation is inherently non-deterministic.
But there are other ...
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If time is an illusion, then is free will also an illusion under such illusion? [closed]
Space time has existed from the beginning of the universe and until its end and humans exist on 3D plane. Due to its limitations, it is only able to experience one period of spacetime, like being ...
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Are scattering experiments probabilistic in quantum mechanics?
Suppose we have a electron that will scatter into an atom. When the electron is far way of the atom long before the scattering the system is represented by the state $\left|\psi_\text{in}\right\...
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Does indeterministic event imply the violation of causality?
In many cases, an indeterministic event were accompanied by the violation of causality in certain theory.
However, does indeterminstic event in general imply the violation of causality in classical (...
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Past prediction of a damped harmonic oscillator (a follow-up of a previous question)
Consider an ordinary differential equation (ODE) of a 1D damped oscillator of the form
$$\ddot{x}+\gamma\dot{x}+\omega^2x=0.~~(\omega^2,\gamma>0)$$
I want to know if this ODE is reversible i.e., ...
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In classical physics, by knowing the present, can we always uniquely construct the past? [duplicate]
In classical mechanics, by knowing the present, is it always possible to uniquely reconstruct the past? By knowing the phase space point at present i.e., the set of coordinates $\{q_i(0),p_i(0)\}$, ...
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Does quantum mechanics tell us when the next measurement will occur?
In many interpretations of quantum mechanics, the result of a measurement is regarded as non-deterministic. However, my question is: is the time at which a measurement occurs deterministic? To be ...
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Is it theoretically possible to reconstruct physical scenes in the past from current physical situation? [duplicate]
I have lately been in a rural area. In this rural area, my father had a hunting lodge. It was a very special place for me as I spent many exiting days of my childhood there.
30 years later, my father ...
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Is weather a phenomenon impacted by quantum randomness?
Im trying to find phenomena that impact our everyday lives that are subject to quantum randomness. And I was wondering whether weather might be one of them. Can an electron behaving slightly ...
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What does superdeterminism mean in the context of Bell inequalities?
I see superdeterminism come up as one way that local realism and all that other good stuff can be preserved, but it also seems like it's a minority view. I've been trying to understand why, and really,...
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Are there known situations where the non-deterministic property of QM is notisable in human perceptions (seconds to hours or cm to meters) [duplicate]
QM is non-deterministic. In QM you can calculater the chance that a particle is at a certain position. But as a human we cannot experiance one particl, only a vast number of particles (eg constant of ...
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How can one distinguish between a random process and a chaotic process? [duplicate]
Chaos is not a random process, although it may look like one. If I am given a set of observations, is it possible to determine if the observations are generated by a random process or if they are ...
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From the initial condition problem of the Euler-Lagrange equation to the principle of least action
I browsed through many similar questions about the Initial Condition Problem (ICP) and Boundary Value Problem (BVP) for Euler-Lagrange equations, here some interesting but (in my opinion) incomplete ...
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Could an external being predict quantum uncertainty given all the information of our Universe? [duplicate]
I'll elaborate and be more specific. I understand that this is almost a metaphysical question but nonetheless I want to give it a try.
Could an external being outside our Universe create 10 ...
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Deterministic and stochastic chaos
I have a question about chaos, but first a foreword of what I understood.
Noise refers to the random variation of values. Usually unwanted, noise causes a measurement to fluctuate over time.
Chaos ...
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How much do quantum fluctuations affect our lives? [closed]
In other words, how deterministic is our daily lives given the probabilistic attributes of quantum mechanics? How much does the randomness of quantum mechanics affect our thoughts and our actions?
To ...
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