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SCIENCE STUDIES EVENTS
THE PROBLEM OF NON-INDIVIDUALITY IN QUANTUM MECHANICS
Adonai Sant'Anna
Department of Mathematics, Federal University of Paraná, Brazil
and Department of Philosophy, University of South Carolina
November 16, 2004
Tuesday, 12:30pm-2:00pm
Sumwalt College, Room 102
Elementary particles in quantum mechanics are indistinguishable when
sharing the same intrinsic properties and the same quantum state. This
means that if a quantum particle is considered to be completely described
by means of its intrinsic properties and its quantum state, then
indistinguishability corresponds to identity, in the usual mathematical
sense. Such a consequence is very inconvenient from the physical point of
view. So, we discuss some alternative ways to cope with this situation.
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