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

Abstract

This article addresses the role and limits of the idea of in and physics. After considering in detail the concept of classical operative in physics and (with additional restrictions) in relativity, the article introduces an alternative concept of causality, designated as quantum which applies in mechanics, even and in particular in those interpretations of it that reject the applicability of classical causality to phenomena and, hence, exclude it from 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.