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Ken Wharton

@kenwharton.bsky.social
856 followers 1.3K following 477 posts

Physics professor at San Jose State. Quantum Foundations. Big fan of space and time, and also many things therein.

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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The day after our new paper was published, I gave this seminar on it at the Perimeter Institute, to the quantum foundations group. After all the deep conversations (and great questions after the talk), I’m buzzing with new ideas of how to push it even further! pirsa.org/26090036
pirsa.org
Localized covariant quantities appear to underlie quantum systems | PIRSA
Wharton, K. (2026). Localized covariant quantities appear to underlie quantum systems. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/26090036
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
New publication! Maybe, after a century of trying to “interpret” the quantum wavefunction, we should also spend a bit of effort looking at different variables that might better represent reality. Say, variables that fully respect relativity, hidden inside a common representation of quantum systems.
mdpi.com
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I'm looking forward to visiting Perimeter next week! It'll be fun to talk foundations with everyone. Good timing, too; the paper I'm presenting was just accepted yesterday. My seminar is 11am Thursday; I'll post the recording at some point. Abstract below. events.perimeterinstitute.ca/event/2618/
events.perimeterinstitute.ca
Localized covariant quantities appear to underlie quantum systems
Any quantum system can be closely approximated by a quantum circuit with spatially-localized qubits. We analyze such quantum circuits and present evidence that the local weak values comprise a covaria...
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Very nice analysis by David Albert.
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Here's an honest question of mine, from deep in another thread.
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
New preprint. Maybe, after a full century of trying to “interpret” the quantum wavefunction, we should spend a bit of effort looking at different variables that might better represent reality. Say, something that fully respects relativity, hidden inside a common representation of quantum systems.
arxiv.org
Localized Covariant Quantities Appear To Underlie Quantum Circuits
Although entangled state vectors cannot be fully described in terms of variables localized in space and time, any given entanglement experiment can be built from basic quantum circuit components with ...
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LMU Munich Philosophy Faculty @lmuphilosophy.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
"Bell's Theorem and Beyond" (June 26) One-day workshop at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy. More info here: www.philosophie.lmu.de/mcmp/en/late... #philosophy #bellstheorem
philosophie.lmu.de
Workshop on Bell’s Theorem and Beyond
Detail page of an event
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
The video of my talk for World Quantum Day is now up; mine is the first one in the clip, starts at 3:30 after the intro. sciforum.net/event/MWQDW2... "Retrocausal Quantum Models: 10+ Reasons to take them Seriously"
sciforum.net
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
New podcast series from Woodwell notaclimatescientist.woodwellclimate.org "Not a Climate Scientist is the podcast where we talk with everyday Americans about the very real ways climate change is showing up in our lives and livelihoods..."
notaclimatescientist.woodwellclimate.org
Home - Not a Climate Scientist
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Happening soon, in two hours! It looks like you might need to "register".
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
For any ‘retrocurious’ people out there... I’m giving a free online talk next week, a new big-picture foundations talk I’ve been developing: “Retrocausal Quantum Models; 10 reasons to take them seriously.” Monday evening in the US; Tuesday late morning in Asia/Australia. sciforum.net/event/MWQDW2...
sciforum.net
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Made it to Denver for APS. Only 1 quantum foundations session this year (down from 4 last year), but it looks like a very good one. I'll have to get up early Friday for @quantumaephraim.bsky.social 's invited talk, but it will be worth it! My own little talk is at 10am. summit.aps.org/events/MAR-Y18
summit.aps.org
Interpretations and Extensions of Quantum Mechanics | APS Meeting
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Interesting new paper by Guido Bacciagaluppi and colleagues, raising some deep issues with Bell’s Theorem. On one level I think they’re right that there’s a connection between realistic violations of Bell inequalities and “nonlocal signaling in principle”. They seem to go together.
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
The talks from a recent quantum foundations conference at Chapman U. are now online... Each day is its own 5-hour video, I guess. My talk, "A realistic alternative to the wavefunction", happened to be the first on day 1 (skip to the 10 minute mark). www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPwj...
youtube.com
john templeton foundation at chapman iqs conference day 1 720p
YouTube video by Institute for Quantum Studies
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California Faculty Association @cfaunited.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
The CSU/OpenAI contract is set to expire June 30, 2026. Sign this petition: actionnetwork.org/petitions/cancel-… for the CSU NOT to renew the contract and to use the savings to protect jobs at CSU campuses facing layoffs.
Bold text reading 'CANCEL CHATGPT EDU.' with a red banner stating 'INVEST IN HUMANS' over a dark board background.
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Thanks for the nice "shout-outs" in the second half! And even more thanks for working up to a wonderfully clear account of how entanglement might be explained by a retrocausal hidden variable model, Bell's theorem notwithstanding. @danielwhiteson.bsky.social @weinersmith.bsky.social
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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Here's the data:
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Andrew B. Watkins @windjunky.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Globally, no single day in 2025 was cooler than its 1991-2020 average. climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...
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Los Angeles Times @latimes.com · 07/01/2026
A year after the Eaton fire, the loss of Altadena is still raw
latimes.com
A year after the Eaton fire, the loss of Altadena is still raw
A reporter reflects on the loss of her hometown, Altadena, remembering what it was and imagining what it will become.
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Today I ran across my FQxI podcast interview from (gulp) nine years ago… Still holds up! But was I ever really that well-spoken? I suspect they must have cut out all the uhs and ums. qspace.fqxi.org/podcasts/dat...
qspace.fqxi.org
FQxI Podcast: December 12, 2016
The Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, catalyzes, supports, and disseminates research on questions at the foundations of science, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a dee...
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
This was actually very good! Only real complaint is that they missed the retrocausal option. And superdeterminism is always getting more attention than it deserves. But I liked the early focus on randomness, and they tried harder than most to motivate an explanation of the classical limit.
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
It’s really too bad that my sub-field of quantum foundations research doesn’t have any Halloween-related or spooky aspects, no way that anyone could ever use the season to drum up any... any fake-quoted, overdramatic… Oh. Oh dear. molotovsunsets.substack.com/p/the-univer...
molotovsunsets.substack.com
The Universe Knows How You Die
Retrocausality and the Backward Reach of Time
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John Dudley @johnmdudley.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Great news for Michael Berry who has received the Isaac Newton medal of the IOP. What I absolutely love about his work is that it cuts across so many different areas of physics - from the foundations of quantum physics to understanding the rainbow. physicsworld.com/a/theoretica...
physicsworld.com
Theoretical physicist Michael Berry wins 2025 Isaac Newton Medal and Prize – Physics World
Berry recognized for his contributions in mathematics and theoretical physics over a 60-year career
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Let me try to explain why it's important to study the foundations of quantum mechanics. (1/n) (Have to do some breathing exercises, b/c to me it's blindingly obvious that "understanding the most important theory in physics" is something physicists should care about, but apparently opinions differ.)
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Dennis Koch @dejayk.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Why The Quantum State Only Exists In Our Mind A metaphysical shift that’s happening in the foundations of physics: the wave function is no longer regarded as something real, but just as a description of what we know about the world. youtu.be/SgQdDD3SY84
youtu.be
Why The Quantum State Only Exists In Our Mind
YouTube video by Essentia Foundation
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Uhoh – looks like a few people on Reddit have started playing around with the central ideas in my latest arXiv preprint. Must be time to polish it up and actually submit the damn thing. (But still, always nice to read "it's kind of blown me away"...) www.reddit.com/r/QuantumPhy...
reddit.com
"A Localized Reality Appears To Underpin Quantum Circuits" (with consequences for entanglement)
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Heading to Alaska soon, where apparently even the landslides are beautiful.
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Katie Wilkinson @drkwilkinson.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Thanks to @mercurynews.com for covering the $55.9M in NIH cuts to Bay Area research funding. I appreciate that they didn't just focus on the elite institutions (a colleague and I are quoted) & want to share some key takeaways 🧪 1/ www.mercurynews.com/2025/05/05/b...
mercurynews.com
Bay Area universities in chaos amid research funding cuts
The Trump administration has canceled hundreds of research grants.
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Unsolicited advice for making progress in quantum foundations: 1) If there were a gentle tweak or simple idea that would make clear sense of quantum theory, beyond the for-all-practical-purposes-level, it would certainly have been found by now.
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
A very good, wide-ranging interview with Emily Adlam -- most of it on quantum foundations, along with a strong case for retrocausal/all-at-once approaches. youtu.be/6I2OhmVWLMs?...
youtu.be
The "All At Once" Universe Shatters Our View of Time
YouTube video by Curt Jaimungal
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Huw Price @huwprice.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Latest version of my work on entanglement with @kenwharton.bsky.social. We propose that entanglement is a kind of selection artefact. This was a talk at @griffith.edu.au, and the slides are accessible here: bit.ly/4h9dMeo #philsky #PhilSci #quantum #entanglement
youtube.com
A Mechanism for Entanglement?
YouTube video by The Quietist
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
A little fun news for me... Apparently the last science fiction story I ever wrote, 20 years ago, is now being discussed in at least one Philosophy course! The story is called "Aloha", originally published in the magazine Analog.
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
Tonight I got to see the first-ever spacecraft image of Mars, from Mariner 4's flyby. Apparently, before the raw image was processed, people at JPL printed out paper strips of numerical pixel values and -- coloring by hand! -- used pastels to distinguish different brightness levels.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_4#First_image_hand_drawn .
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
I actually shelled out 4 bucks so I could peek behind the Popular Mechanics paywall and see what they are saying about retrocausality in quantum foundations. Maybe I got about 40 cents worth? www.popularmechanics.com/science/a637...
popularmechanics.com
Your Consciousness Can Reach Back in Time to Shape the Past, a New Theory Suggests
In the quantum realm, the past, present, and future blur into a boundless structure. But consciousness may operate on a plane beyond this timeless mist.
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Richard Feynman’s former house in Altadena burned to the ground last week in the Eaton Fire. So did thousands and thousands of others -- including mine. 1/
Feynman's former house
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 05/01/2025
Why is it always "Last but not least"? Surely, every now and then, it should be: "Last, and -- coincidentally -- also least".
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Joppe Widstam @joppewidstam.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Starter pack! Philosophy and physics of time: go.bsky.app/QgoUzVr
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
We’ve started a tradition in our department where the faculty give 5-minute “silly talks” for the last physics seminar of the semester. Here was my contribution: The Hidden Tragedy of Back to the Future 1/7
The hidden tragedy of Back to the Future
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Pro Tip: When you use ChatGPT to compose an email to your professor, it's a good idea to proofread it first...
Here's a professional and respectful way to structure your email to address these concerns:

Good afternoon, sir.

I hope this email finds you well. I recently reviewed my final exam scores after seeing your announcement...
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Davide De Biasio @davidedebiasio.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Ok, #quantum #physics Bluesky people: how do you like your quantum foundations? Are states ontic, epistemic or a secret, more complex third thing? #philosophy #science #debate
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Chess.com @chess.com · 12/12/2024
CONGRATULATIONS TO GUKESH, THE NEW WORLD CHAMPION 🏆 The 18-year-old Indian star has defeated the reigning champion, Ding Liren, to become the youngest-ever undisputed classical chess world champion. Wow! 🇮🇳
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Cal-Bridge Program @calbridge.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
🌟🚀 Calling all California Community College and California State University #STEM majors, this is your moment! The Cal-Bridge Summer Program application is OPEN! Spend your summer conducting groundbreaking #research at top institutions nationwide. Apply by January 31 at calbridge.org.
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Sometimes, when I see how much popular attention and interest is given to quantum foundations (as in the below link), I wonder why more people don't go into the field. Even given all the obvious downsides, it still doesn't quite make sense to me. physics.stackexchange.com/questions/83...
physics.stackexchange.com
What does it mean when folks say that universe is not "Locally real"?
I've read somewhat about the matter but can't quite picture it. Is this a property that only applies at the quantum level and not the classical level like us? So far I've seen some rather strange t...
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Ken Wharton @kenwharton.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Getting very close to a universal hidden variable model... Very promising results here in our new preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2412.05456 . Local weak values have been the key stepping stone, but don’t seem to be quite enough to wrangle quantum systems back into spacetime.
arxiv.org
A Localized Reality Appears To Underpin Quantum Circuits
Although entangled state vectors cannot be described in terms of classically realistic variables, localized in space and time, any given entanglement experiment can be built from basic quantum circuit...
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