Potentiality States: Quantum versus Classical Emergence

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of potentiality states as a unifying framework for understanding emergence in physical systems, demonstrating quantum-like features such as Bell inequality violations across diverse examples.

Contribution

It operationally defines potentiality states, connects them to superposition states, and shows their role in emergence, supported by examples and quantum structure analysis.

Findings

Bell inequalities are violated by potentiality states in examples.

Potentiality states can be superpositions, indicating quantum structure in emergence.

Classical emergence differs from potentiality-based emergence in stability and contextuality.

Abstract

We identify emergence with the existence of states of potentiality related to relevant physical quantities. We introduce the concept of 'potentiality state' operationally and show how it reduces to 'superposition state' when standard quantum mechanics can be applied. We consider several examples to illustrate our approach, and define the potentiality states giving rise to emergence in each example. We prove that Bell inequalities are violated by the potentiality states in the examples, which, taking into account Pitowsky's theorem, experimentally indicates the presence of quantum structure in emergence. In the first example emergence arises because of the many ways water can be subdivided into different vessels. In the second example, we put forward a full quantum description of the Liar paradox situation, and identify the potentiality states, which in this case turn out to be superposition states. In the example of the soccer team, we show the difference between classical emergence as stable dynamical pattern and emergence defined by a potentiality state, and show how Bell inequalities can be violated in the case of highly contextual experiments.