Wharton, Ken

Professor, Physics & Astronomy
Preferred: kenneth.wharton@sjsu.edu
Primary Research Fields: Quantum Foundations, Quantum Entanglement, Time-Symmetry, Causal Models
Education
- PhD (Physics), UCLA 1998
- BS (Physics), Stanford 1992
Bio
I work in Quantum Foundations, making sense of quantum phenomena in terms of continuous structures in ordinary space and time. The key turns out to be models which are solved "all at once" -- four-dimensional boundary value problems, much like classical action principles. Allowing the future to constrain the past resolves the usual "no-go" theorems and restores a single spacetime-based reality at the expense of a hidden "retrocausation" that some people find counter-intuitive. Nevertheless, this approach has recently been gaining in popularity as a potential solution to the thorniest puzzles of quantum theory.
My research group consists of both graduate and undergraduate students at SJSU. Some popular-science and technical paper links are listed below.
Links
- The Universe is Not a Computer (Award Winning, Popular-Level Essay)
- Retrocausality in Physics (Interview / Video)
- Taming the Quantum Spooks (Aeon article with Huw Price)
- 2020 Colloquium in Reviews of Modern Physics (Technical piece with Nathan Argaman)
- Latest arXiv Preprint ("A Localized Reality Appears To Underpin Quantum Circuits", with Rod Sutherland and SJSU students)