Foundations of Quantum Mechanics in the Second Quantum Century
A special issue of Quantum Reports (ISSN 2624-960X). This special issue belongs to the section "Foundations and Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 59
Special Issue Editors
Interests: philosophy of physics; computation and information; history of philosophy of science
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: philosophy and psychology of reasoning and argumentation; the philosophy of physics (esp. the philosophy of open quantum systems); formal social epistemology (esp. models of deliberation)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
More than one hundred years after the development of quantum mechanics, there is still no consensus regarding how the quantum formalism should be interpreted from a foundational perspective. Is quantum mechanics complete or incomplete, and in what sense? Does the theory require a solution to the measurement problem, and if so, what form should such a solution take? Are quantum states best understood as ontic, epistemic or relational? Should quantum theory fundamentally be formulated in terms of closed systems or open systems? More generally, what is the status of non-unitary dynamics, decoherence and subsystem descriptions, and what do they tell us about physical reality, emergence, probability, information, computation, space and time?
Further foundational questions concern the relationship between quantum mechanics and other theories. These include conceptual and formal questions about the relation between quantum and classical descriptions, historical questions about the development of quantum theory and systematic questions concerning quantum reconstructions, axiomatic approaches and comparisons with logically possible or “foil” theories.
The aim of this Special Issue is to provide a snapshot of contemporary debates on the foundations and interpretation of quantum mechanics at the beginning of the second quantum century. Submissions addressing any of the topics mentioned above are welcome, as are contributions on related foundational issues not explicitly listed here.
Dr. Michael Cuffaro
Prof. Dr. Stephan Hartmann
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- quantum interpretation
- measurement problem
- open quantum systems
- quantum axiomatizations
- quantum reconstruction
- quantum computation
- quantum information
- quantum gravity
- history of quantum mechanics
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