Introduction
My research program
Assumptions of Physics on the mathematical foundations of physics with
Gabriele Carcassi seeks to identify the assumptions underlying different branches of physics and rederive the respective mathematical
frameworks directly from the physical assumptions.
While the research program is primarily a physics program, it has connections to mathematics and the philosophy of science.
Links to all papers, talks, videos, and our book can be found on our
website, and the book and published
papers are highlighted below.
Book
Assumptions of Physics, Gabriele Carcassi and Christine A. Aidala.
Michigan Publishing, 2025, (1st ed. 2021).
Published articles
"What non-additive integral for ensemble spaces?" Gabriele Carcassi, Christine A. Aidala, Tobias Thrien.
Accepted as a short paper to the 21st International Conference on Information Processing
and Management Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems (IPMU 2026).
(
arxiv:2602.01470)
"Classical mechanics as the high-entropy limit of quantum mechanics." Gabriele Carcassi, Manuele Landini, Christine A. Aidala.
Physical Scripta 101, 065105 (2026).
(
arxiv:2411.00972)
"The unphysicality of Hilbert spaces." Gabriele Carcassi, Francisco Calderón, Christine A. Aidala.
Quantum Studies: Mathematics and Foundations 12, 13 (2025).
(
arxiv:2308.06669)
"Non-additive measures for quantum probability?" Gabriele Carcassi, Christine A. Aidala.
Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Information Processing
and Management Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems (IPMU 2024).
(
arxiv:2507.11735)
"A no-go theorem for psi-ontic models? Yes! Response to criticisms." Gabriele Carcassi, Andrea Oldofredi,
Christine A. Aidala.
Foundations of Physics 55, 5 (2024).
(
arxiv:2412.19182)
"How quantum mechanics requires non-additive measures." Gabriele Carcassi, Christine A. Aidala.
Entropy 25, 1670 (2024).
(
arxiv:2311.01951)
"On the reality of the quantum state once again: A no-go theorem for psi-ontic models." Gabriele Carcassi, Andrea Oldofredi,
Christine A. Aidala.
Foundations of Physics 54, 14 (2024).
(
arxiv:2201.11842)
"Geometric and physical interpretation of the action principle." Gabriele Carcassi, Christine A. Aidala.
Scientific Reports 13, 12138 (2023).
(
arxiv:2208.06428)
"Hamiltonian privilege." Josh Hunt, Gabriele Carcassi, Christine A. Aidala.
Erkenntnis (2023).
(
philsci-archive.pitt.edu/22202)
"On the common logical structure of classical and quantum mechanics." Andrea Oldofredi, Gabriele Carcassi, Christine A. Aidala.
Erkenntnis (2022).
(
arXiv:2206.10667)
"Reverse Physics: From laws to physical assumptions." Gabriele Carcassi and Christine A. Aidala.
Foundations of Physics 52, 40 (2022).
(
arXiv:2111.09107)
"Variability as a better characterization of Shannon entropy." Gabriele Carcassi, Christine A. Aidala, Julian Barbour.
Eur. J. Phys. 42, 045102 (2021).
(
arXiv:1912.02012)
"The four postulates of quantum mechanics are three." Gabriele Carcassi, Lorenzo Maccone, Christine A. Aidala.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 126:110402 (2021).
(
arXiv:2003.11007)
"Hamiltonian mechanics is conservation of information entropy." Gabriele Carcassi, Christine A. Aidala.
Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 71:60 (2020).
(
arXiv:2004.11569 )
"Space-time structure may be topological and not geometrical." Gabriele Carcassi and Christine A. Aidala.
Phys. Scr. 95:084003 (2020).
(
arXiv:2006.13830)
"The fundamental connections between classical Hamiltonian mechanics, quantum mechanics and information entropy."
Gabriele Carcassi and Christine A. Aidala.
Int. J. of Quantum Information 18:1941025 (2020).
(arXiv:2001.07206)
"Topology and experimental distinguishability." Christine A. Aidala, Gabriele Carcassi, Mark J. Greenfield.
Top. Proc. 54:271, 2019.
(
arXiv:1708.05492)
"From physical assumptions to classical and quantum Hamiltonian and Lagrangian particle mechanics."
Gabriele Carcassi, Christine A. Aidala, David J. Baker, Lydia Bieri.
J. Phys. Commun. 2:045026 (2018).
(
arXiv:1702.07052)