Quantum Counterfactuals: Interaction-Free Measurements and Classical Logic’s Constraints

The aim of this paper is to carry out a critical analysis of the uses of the material conditionals employed to represent the counterfactual detections taking place inside Elitzur-Vaidman quantum bomb detectors in so-called quantum interaction free measurements (IFMs). We provide an exhaustive philos...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Sánchez-Ovcharov, Carmen, Gherab Martín, Karim, Fernández-Cuesta, Alejandro
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universidad Camilo José Cela (UCJC)
Repositorio:Depósito Digital e-UCJC
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.ucjc.edu:20.500.12020/1805
Acceso en línea:https://www.pdcnet.org//collection/fshow?id=logos-episteme_2025_0016_0004_0455_0477&pdfname=logos-episteme_2025_0016_0004_0083_0105.pdf&file_type=pdf
https://www.pdcnet.org/logos-episteme/content/logos-episteme_2025_0016_0004_0455_0477
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12020/1805
https://doi.org/10.5840/logos-episteme202516434
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Filosofía, Filología y Lingüística
Interaction-Free Measurements
Counterfactuals
Quantum Mechanics
Conditionals
Logic
7205.04 Filosofía de la Física
7205 Filosofía de la Ciencia
11 Lógica
Descripción
Sumario:The aim of this paper is to carry out a critical analysis of the uses of the material conditionals employed to represent the counterfactual detections taking place inside Elitzur-Vaidman quantum bomb detectors in so-called quantum interaction free measurements (IFMs). We provide an exhaustive philosophical study of this classical approach focusing on its limitations. To do so, we formulate atomic propositions corresponding to the observable events of the experiments, to overcome the shortcomings of the conditional expression. Finally, we show that the standard definition of counterfactuality in quantum contexts based on classical logic is epistemologically too limited, presenting quantum logics as the most promising possible approach to address this type of quantum counterfactuality.