Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: Holism, Physical Theories and Quantum Mechanics   Motivated by the question what it is that makes quantum mechanics a holistic
theory (if so), I try to define for general physical theories what we mean by
`holism'. For this purpose I propose an epistemological criterion to decide
whether or not a physical theory is holistic, namely: a physical theory is
holistic if and only if it is impossible in principle to infer the global
properties, as assigned in the theory, by local resources available to an
agent. I propose that these resources include at least all local operations and
classical communication. This approach is contrasted with the well-known
approaches to holism in terms of supervenience. The criterion for holism
proposed here involves a shift in emphasis from ontology to epistemology. I
apply this epistemological criterion to classical physics and Bohmian mechanics
as represented on a phase and configuration space respectively, and for quantum
mechanics (in the orthodox interpretation) using the formalism of general
quantum operations as completely positive trace non-increasing maps.
Furthermore, I provide an interesting example from which one can conclude that
quantum mechanics is holistic in the above mentioned sense, although, perhaps
surprisingly, no entanglement is needed.

26
The categories of this paper are: bayes-an
31
The categories of this paper are: ao-sci
27
The categories of this paper are: comp-gas
0
The categories of this paper are: hep-ph
10
The categories of this paper are: q-bio
7
The categories of this paper are: hep-th
11
The categories of this paper are: hep-lat
15
The categories of this paper are: nucl-ex
23
The categories of this paper are: solv-int
30
The categories of this paper are: q-alg
21
The categories of this paper are: adap-org
17
The categories of this paper are: q-fin
29
The categories of this paper are: funct-an
20
The categories of this paper are: acc-phys
37
The categories of this paper are: supr-con
32
The categories of this paper are: atom-ph