A first-principles approach to physics based on locality and operationalism

TL;DR

This paper introduces a general, principle-based framework for describing physics probabilistically without assuming time or metrics, unifying quantum and classical theories through locality and operationalism.

Contribution

It presents a novel, foundational approach to physics based on locality and operationalism, unifying quantum and classical theories without predefined notions of time or metric.

Findings

Framework converges with quantum theory formulations

Admits classical statistical theories

No assumption of time or metric needed

Abstract

Starting from the guiding principles of spacetime locality and operationalism, a general framework for a probabilistic description of nature is proposed. Crucially, no notion of time or metric is assumed, neither any specific physical model. Remarkably, the emerging framework converges with a recently proposed formulation of quantum theory, obtained constructively from known quantum physics. At the same time the framework also admits statistical theories of classical physics.