Non-Unitarity in Physics: A Philosophical Analysis

在量子理论中，时间的流逝被认为是一种对称性。这种假设被称为“单一时间演化”，它意味着物理实验是“可重复的”，也就是说，一次进行的实验必须与在任何其他时间进行的完全相同的实验给出相同的结果。然而，物理学中两个著名的问题，关于时间之箭和黑洞信息，也许可以通过允许非单一进化来解决。本项目旨在对非酉时间演化进行哲学分析，确定它是否真的可以解决这些问题，并探讨其认识论和形而上学意义。

The passage of time is assumed to be a symmetry in quantum theory. This assumption, called unitary time evolution, implies that physical experimentation is "repeatable" in the sense that an experiment performed at one time must give the same results as the exact same experiment at any other time. However, two famous problems in physics, concerning the arrow of time and black hole information, might be solvable by allowing non-unitary evolution. This project aims to perform a philosophical analysis of non-unitary time evolution, determining whether it can indeed solve these problems, and exploring its epistemological and metaphysical implications.