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Propensities in a non-deterministic physics

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Abstract

Propensities are presented as a generalization of classical determinism. They describe a physical reality intermediary between Laplacian determinism and pure randomness, such as in quantum mechanics. They are characterized by the fact that their values are determined by the collection of all actual properties. It is argued that they do not satisfy Kolmogorov axioms; other axioms are proposed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Group of Applied Physics, University of Geneva, CH-1211, Geneva 4, Switzerland

    N. Gisin

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  1. N. Gisin
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It is a pleasure to thank Professors Abner Shimony and David Scharf for their criticisms and comments about the manuscript.

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Gisin, N. Propensities in a non-deterministic physics. Synthese 89, 287–297 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00413910

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