A principle of quantumness

Ovidiu-Cristinel Stoica

Published 2014-02-10, updated 2014-06-29Version 4

Quantum correlations and other phenomena characteristic to a quantum world can be understood as simply consequences of a principle derived from the postulates of Quantum Mechanics. This explanatory principle states that these phenomena specific to the quantum world are caused by the tension between the constraints, or initial conditions, imposed by incompatible observations. This tension is found to be at the root of Bohr's complementarity, Heisenberg's uncertainty, results concerning nonlocality, contextuality, quantum correlations in time and space. This tension requires the presence of noncommuting observables, but noncommutativity doesn't always lead to the tension, and the two concepts are not exactly the same, as it will be explained and exemplified.