Thursday May 26, 10:15-12:00

Wednesday June 1, 10:15-12:00

This minicourse is an introduction to an exciting recent approach to the foundations of quantum mechanics. We will see how, by adapt- ing the mathematical logic and set theory used for bookkeeping, we can study any quantum mechanical system as if it were a classical sys- tem. Technically, quantum mechanical systems can be formulated as (possibly noncommutative) C∗-algebras, whereas classical mechanics corresponds to commutative C∗-algebras. The way to pass from the former to the latter is via the category theoretical notion of topos.

Prerequisites: familiarity with the standard Hilbert space formula- tion of quantum mechanics and the rudiments of topology. Prior ex- posure to category theory or formal mathematical logic is optional but very helpful.