Centro De Ciencias Sociales Y Humanidades Departamento De Filosofía T E S

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Centro De Ciencias Sociales Y Humanidades Departamento De Filosofía T E S CENTRO DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES Y HUMANIDADES DEPARTAMENTO DE FILOSOFÍA T E S I S EL INDETERMINISMO Y EL PRINCIPIO DE INCERTIDUMBRE DE HEISENBERG PRESENTA Cresencio Salvador Medina Rivera PARA OBTENER EL GRADO DE DOCTOR EN CIENCIAS SOCIALES Y HUMANIDADES TUTOR Dr. José de Lira Bautista COMITÉ TUTORAL Dr. Netzahualcóyotl Castañeda Leyva Dr. Enrique Luján Salazar LECTORES Dra. Yolanda Cadenas Gómez Dr. Ángel Eduardo Muñoz Zavala Aguascalientes, Ags. 18 de Mayo de 2011 AGRADECIMIENTOS A mis familiares y amigos: por estar siempre conmigo, baje o suba la rueda. A mi tutor y cotutor: por su incondicional apoyo, sus conocimientos y su impar bonhomía. A la Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, por abrir espacios de crecimiento, y por permitirme estar a su lado en el continuo intento de lograr un mundo mejor. A mi comité tutoral y a mis lectores, pues sin sus observaciones, todo habría sido más difícil. Y sobre todo, y como siempre: “gracias a la vida… que me ha dado tanto” ESTE TRABAJO ESTÁ DEDICADO A: Mi padre (q. e . p. d.), mi madre y mis hermanos, por ser parte de mi vida. Todos aquéllos que me han ayudado, y que siempre llevo en la memoria. Y por supuesto, especialmente a: Mi esposa y mis hijos: Paulina, Irene y Salam: por ser el pan y la sal de mi vida. “Quienes luchan toda la vida. Esos son los imprescindibles.” –B. Brecht– Í N D I C E Resumen ....................................................................................................... i Abstract ....................................................................................................... ii Introducción ................................................................................................... iii 1 El indeterminismo .......................................................................................... 1 Introducción ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 El determinismo ............................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Aparición en las primeras culturas ................................................................... 1 1.1.2 En la cultura griega ........................................................................................... 3 1.1.3 La edad media .................................................................................................. 22 1.1.4 La edad de la razón ........................................................................................... 25 1.1.5 Laplace y el determinismo ............................................................................... 36 1.1.6 Embates de la física al determinismo ............................................................... 41 1.2 Tipos de determinismo ..................................................................................... 43 1.2.1 Determinismo religioso y metafísico ............................................................... 43 1.2.2 Determinismo científico ................................................................................... 45 1.3 Nacimiento del indeterminismo ....................................................................... 47 1.4 El indeterminismo científico ............................................................................ 49 1.4.1 Tipos de indeterminismo: religioso y metafísico ............................................. 49 1.4.2 El indeterminismo científico ............................................................................ 50 1.5 Exponentes principales del indeterminismo ..................................................... 55 1.6 Conclusiones ................................................................................................... 56 2 El indeterminismo y la física ......................................................................... 58 Introducción ...................................................................................................... 58 2.1 Objeciones de Popper al indeterminismo de la mecánica cuántica .................. 58 2.2 La relación causal ............................................................................................. 65 2.3 Las regularidades estadísticas .......................................................................... 81 2.4 Causalidad y medición ..................................................................................... 90 2.5 ¿Por qué es determinista la física clásica? ........................................................ 107 2.6 El indeterminismo de la mecánica cuántica ..................................................... 117 2.7 Los objetos atómicos y el PIH .......................................................................... 127 2.8 Conclusiones .................................................................................................... 129 3 Génesis de la mecánica cuántica ................................................................... 134 Introducción ..................................................................................................... 134 3.1 Introducción histórica ...................................................................................... 135 3.2 Opiniones de científicos ................................................................................... 151 3.3 Opinión de Popper acerca de PIH .................................................................... 169 3.4 Conclusiones .................................................................................................... 171 4 Dos teorías ...................................................................................................... 173 Introducción ..................................................................................................... 173 4.1 Antecedentes .................................................................................................... 173 4.2 Born y la probabilidad ..................................................................................... 183 4.3 Los objetos atómicos y la dualidad .................................................................. 190 4.4 ¿La mecánica cuántica es explicativa? ............................................................ 197 4.5 Heisenberg y la incertidumbre ......................................................................... 204 4.6 Conclusiones .................................................................................................... 217 5 PIH: ¿Indeterminación o incertidumbre? ................................................... 220 Introducción ..................................................................................................... 220 5.1 El Principio de Incertidumbre de Heisenberg .................................................. 221 5.2 PIH y los problemas de la medición ................................................................ 238 5.3 El azar y el proceso de medida ........................................................................ 252 5.4 La mínima información: el cuanto de acción ................................................... 266 5.5 La medición y el colapso de ........................................................................ 272 5.6 PIH y PCB: sostén de la teoría cuántica .......................................................... 274 5.7 Conclusiones .................................................................................................... 280 Conclusiones ................................................................................................... 289 Bibliografía ..................................................................................................... 306 Anexo ....................................................................................................... A.1 R E S U M E N Desde sus orígenes, la mecánica cuántica ha sido fuente de controversias, pues los dilemas teóricos que aparecen al solucionar problemas relacionados con el átomo son vastos y profundos, situándose, incluso, más allá del dominio de la física. Las soluciones propuestas por la teoría cuántica cimbraron los supuestos fundamentales de la física clásica: el determinismo, la continuidad y la objetividad, pues en la teoría aparecen el indeterminismo, la discretización natural y el subjetivismo como elementos inherentes al mundo atómico. Y es que para resolver los problemas, la mecánica cuántica axiomatizó la superposición de una partícula y una onda en un único objeto cuántico, e impulsó la probabilidad y la estadística como las herramientas matemáticas esenciales de su estructura teórica. La superposición de imágenes clásicas, aunada a la imposibilidad de medir con precisión qué tipo de objetos estamos observando, llevó a la postulación de un desarrollo teórico que brinda fortaleza al formalismo matemático, físico y filosófico de la teoría: el Principio de Incertidumbre (o de indeterminación) de Heisenberg (PIH). En este trabajo se buscó clarificar en qué consiste el indeterminismo, apoyándose en el desequilibrio de los sistemas físicos como el causante de las regularidades estadísticas. Para ello, se efectuó un estudio probabilista usando odds ratio, encontrándose que es más probable una naturaleza causalista que una totalmente azarosa. Esto es fundamental para comprender por qué PIH es indeterminista. Además, se utilizó la información, en el sentido de Brillouin, que proporciona un objeto atómico, para concluir que PIH vale, y que es la expresión matemática de PIH quien lo aleja de la causalidad y no permite medir simultáneamente las variables
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