Saunders was an early champion[2] of 'structural realism',the view that mature physical theories correctly describe the structure of reality. Structural realism is today regarded by many philosophers as the most defensible form of realism.[3]
He was also amongst the first[citation needed] to draw attention to the consequences of decoherence for the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics;he defended a decoherence-based version of MWI in a series of articles throughout the 1990s.[4]
More recently,Saunders has worked extensively on the interpretation of probability in quantum mechanics. Along with David Deutsch and David Wallace,he has developed techniques for deriving the Born Rule,which relates quantum amplitudes to objective probabilities. He has applied these arguments to operational approaches to quantum mechanics[5] as well as to MWI.[6] In 2021 Saunders produced a branch counting derivation of the Born Rule.[7]
Saunders has also been a central figure in recent debates over identity and indiscernibility in physics[citation needed]. He was the first to apply the Hilbert-Bernays definition of identity in formalfirst-order languages to physical theories,both spacetime theories and quantum mechanics,[8] going on to show that elementary fermions and composite bosons in quantum theory satisfied the principle of identity of indiscernibles,using the Hilbert-Bernays definition of identity.[9]
In related work,he has argued that classical particles could be treated as indistinguishable in exactly the same way that quantum particles (and that departures from classical statistics can be traced to discrete nature of the measure—dimensionality—of subspace of Hilbert space),and applied this to the Gibbs paradox.[10]
Saunders has also developed a general framework for the treatment of symmetries whereby all symmetries,not only gauge symmetries,as applied to strictly closed systems,yield only redescriptions of the same physical state of affairs. In a slogan:'only invariant properties and relations are physically real'.[11]
In addition,Saunders has worked on quantum field theory,on the philosophy of time,and on the history of physics;he has written numerous encyclopaedia articles and book reviews.
Publications
Books
Many Worlds?:Everett,quantum theory,and reality,S. Saunders,J. Barrett,A. Kent,and D. Wallace (eds),Oxford:Oxford University Press. 2010. ISBN978-0199655502[12]
The Philosophy of Vacuum, S. Saunders and H. Brown (eds.),Clarendon Press, Oxford 1991. ISBN978-0198244493
↑ ‘To What Physics Corresponds', in Correspondence, Invariance, and Heuristics; Essays in Honour of Heinz Post, S. French and H. Kaminga, (eds.), Kluwer Academic, p.295-326.
↑ 2003a: ‘Physics and Leibniz’s Principles’, in Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections, K. Brading and E. Castellani, eds., Cambridge University Press.
↑ 2003d ‘Indiscernibles, General Covariance, and Other Symmetries: the Case for Non-reductive Relationalism', in Revisiting the Foundations of Relativistic Physics: Festschrift in Honour of John Stachel, A. Ashtekar, D. Howard, J. Renn, S. Sarkar, and A. Shimony, (eds.), Kluwer; 2006a ‘On the Explanation of Quantum Statistics’[permanent dead link], Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 37, 192-211
↑ 2003a: ‘Physics and Leibniz’s Principles’, in Symmetries in Physics: Philosophical Reflections, K. Brading and E. Castellani, eds., Cambridge University Press; 2003d ‘Indiscernibles, General Covariance, and Other Symmetries: the Case for Non-reductive Relationalism', in Revisiting the Foundations of Relativistic Physics: Festschrift in Honour of John Stachel, A. Ashtekar, D. Howard, J. Renn, S. Sarkar, and A. Shimony, (eds.), Kluwer.
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