'Dark Materials to Create More Worlds': On Causality in　Classical Physics, Quantum Physics, and Nanophysics

摘要

This article addresses the role and limits of the idea of causality in classical and quantum physics. After considering in detail the concept of "classical causality," operative in classical physics and (with additional restrictions) in relativity, the article introduces an alternative concept of causality, designated as "quantum causality," which applies in quantum mechanics, even and in particular in those interpretations of it that reject the applicability of "classical causality" to quantum phenom-ena and, hence, exclude it from quantum mechanics. Finally, the article discusses the role of this problematic in nanophysics, which, the article suggests, may provide a new area for investigating foundational questions in physics and, reciprocally, benefit from doing so.