Mioara Mugur-Schächter

Mioara Mugur-Schächter is a French-Romanian physicist specialized in fundamental quantum mechanics, probability theory, and theory of communication of information. She is also an epistemologist (methodologist) of the processes of generation of conceptual knowledge. As a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Reims (France), she founded there the “Laboratoire de Mécanique Quantique et Structures de l'Information,” which she directed until 1994. She also founded in Paris the “Centre pour la Synthèse d’une Epistémologie Formalisée” (CeSEF).

Born in Romania, she arrived in France in 1962, from Bucharest where she was researcher at the Institute of Atomic Physics and lecturer at the Institute of Constructions.

In Bucharest, during the period 1957-1959, in total isolation, she established the first detailed and rigorous invalidation of von Neumann’s famous theorem asserting the impossibility of hidden parameters compatible with formalism of the Quantum Mechanics, and she succeeded to transmit the manuscript in English, to Louis de Broglie, in Paris, via a diplomatic channel. This entailed an invitation by Louis de Broglie, to transform the mentioned invalidation, in a Ph.D. thesis under his direction. Three years later, in 1962, Mugur-Schächter was able to arrive in France where the projected Ph.D. work was achieved in 1964. This work was published by Gauthier-Villars in the collection “Les Grands Problèmes des Sciences,” as a book titled “Étude du character complèt de la théorie quantique” (1964) and prefaced by Louis de Broglie (cf. list of works). This book has been re-edited two years ago by Dunod, with the mention “Ré-édition d’un ouvrage du siècle dernier”.

In 1965 Mioara Mugur-Schächter became Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Reims, France, where she founded the “Laboratoire de Mécanique Quantique et Structures de l’Information,” which she directed until 1994.

In 1994, with a group of excellence, she founded the “Centre pour la Synthèse d’une Epistémologie Formalisée” (CeSEF). The Manifesto which announced this creation “Les Leçons de la Mécanique Quantique” was published in “Le Débat” (Gallimard, cf. list of works).

In France, initially the researches of M. Mugur-Schächter continued on a critical path:
- In an international colloquium for the celebration of 100 years from Einstein’s birth, Collège de France, 1979, she challenged publicly the inner structure of a theorem in Bell’s on “non-locality” (cf. list of works).
- In 1979 also, she invalidated Wigner’s theorem on the impossibility of joint probabilities of position and momentum compatible with the quantum mechanics formalism (cf. list of works).

But since 1980 Mugur-Schächter’s research become clearly constructive.

In 1980 she constructed a “Functional of Opacity of a Statistic with respect to the law of Probability which is acting” (cf. list of works).

The activities of the CeSEF led to the publication, in 2002, of a collective book, “Quantum Mechanics, Mathematics, Cognition and Action” (Kluwer Academic Press, H. Mugur-Schächter & Alwyn van der Merwe, edts.) M. Mugur-Schächter’s own contribution was then reprinted in Foundations of Science (2002) and later it has been developed in an independent book “Sur le Tissage de Connaissances” (Lavoisier 2006), where the “Method of Relativized Conceptualization” (MRC) for the first time is thoroughly exposed and discussed in detail and with rigour.

In 2013 Mugur-Schächter published the first version of an “Infra-Mécanique Quantique” (IMQ), (Dianoïa -Presses Universitaires), taken up and developed in 2017 in another book titled “Infra-Mécanique Quantique Indeterminisme, Non-Localité” (cf. list of works). The construct called (in English) Infra-Quantum Mechanics (IQM) is conceived as a structure that takes immersion and reference for any intelligible mathematical representation of the microstates.

In December 2023 – 10 years later – Mioara Mugur-Schächter closed a "Synthetic Exposition" of the essence of her works (ResearchGate, cf. list of works). This contains:

(Synth.1)
An enriched variant of the general Method of Relativized Conceptualization (MRC) where is defined an algorithm for generating the very first consensual knowledge on fragments extracted from the infinite, un-knowable whole of physical reality denoted R. This algorithm entails an unavoidable necessity, for fragments abstracted from R, of a MODEL, in order to become able to construct knowledge on them even if they are quintessentially un-observable. And it appears that the unique such model available, is the Louis de Broglie's one of material waves with singularities in their amplitude.

In consequence of this algorithm, mentioned above, the 2023 first Theory of Factual Probabilities, where is achieved a profound unification between a "generic logic" and a "genetic concept of probability", Shannon's theory of Communication of Information, and Karl Popper’s concept of Propensity. This entails the possibility to define mathematical measures of complexity. This product of the Method of Relativized Conceptualization might come out to be a major consequence.

(Synth.2)
An enriched variant of the Infra-Quantum Mechanics (IQM) where:
- Bell's work on non-locality is clearly invalidated.
- It appears that a modern microphysics IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH A REALISTIC CONCEPTION IN THE SCIENCES OF MATERIAL ENTITIES, ORGANIC OR UNORGANIC.
- The evolution of quintessentially un-observable entities cannot be defined via Schrödinger's equation.
- A modern microphysics where quintessentially un-observable physical entities are studied, cannot be predictive; not even the statistical assertions about them can, in general, be predicted with certainty.

(Synth.3)
The mentioned synthetic exposition contains also the construction of FULLY INTELIGIBLE Second Quantum Mechanics (QM2) where:
- Von Neumann’s theory of quantum measurements is finally clearly unvalidated.
- The De Broglie model for the basic states of matter is found to be ubiquitously in the Hilbert Dirac formalism.
- Then obvious re-interpretation of Gleason’s theorem leads to a new representation of the microstates which is achieved fully bottom-up and is mathematically represented by the current Hilbert-Dirac formalism, of whole only the meaning is changed.

• Étude du caractère complet de la théorie quantique (1964)
• The quantum mechanical one-system formalism, joint probabilities and locality, in Quantum Mechanics a half Century Later, J. L. Lopes and M. Paty, eds., Reidel, pp. 107-146, 1977
• Study of Wigner’s Theorem on Joint Probabilities, Found. Phys., Vol. 9, pp. 389-404, 1979.
• Le concept nouveau de fonctionnelle d’opacité d’une statistique. Etude des relations entre la loi des grands nombres, l’entropie informationnelle et l’entropie statistique, Anns. de l’Inst. H. Poincaré, Section A, vol XXXII, no. 1, pp. 33-71, 1980
• The Probabilistic-Informational Concept of an Opacity Functional, (en collab. Avec N. Hadjissavas), Kybernetes, pp.189-193, Vol. 11(3), 1982.
• Toward a Factually induced Spacetime Quantum Logic, Found. of Phys., Vol. 22, No. 7, pp. 963-994, 1992
• Quantum Probabilities, Komogorov probabilities, and Informational Probabilities, Int. J. Theor. Phys., Vol. 33, No.1, pp. 53-90, 1994.
• Étude du caractère complet de la théorie quantique, livre, 1964, Thèse de doctorat dirigée et préfacée par Louis de Broglie qui incorpore l'invalidation du théorème de Von Neumann mentionné plus haut, Gauthier Villar, Les Grands Problèmes des Sciences, 1964
• Réflexion sur le problème de localité, in Einstein 1979-1955, Colloque du Centenaire, Collège de France, 6-9 juin 1979, Éditions du CNRS, p. 249–264, 1980
• Study of Wigner’s Theorem on Joint Probabilities, Found. Phys., Vol. 9, p. 389–404, 1979.
• Le concept nouveau de fonctionnelle d’opacité d’une statistique. Étude des relations entre la loi des grands nombres, l’entropie informationnelle et l’entropie statistique, Anns. de l’Inst. H. Poincaré, Section A, vol XXXII, no 1, p. 33–71, 1980
• The Probabilistic-Informational Concept of an Opacity Functional, (en collab. avec N. Hadjissavas), Kybernetes, p. 189–193, Vol. 11(3), 1982
• Esquisse d’une représentation générale et formalisée des descriptions et le statut descriptionnel de la mécanique quantique, Epistemological Letters, Lausanne, cahier 36, 1984, p. 1–67.
• Spacetime Quantum Probabilities, …. Part I…, Found. of Phys., Vol 21, no 12, p. 1387–1449, 1991
• Spacetime Quantum Probabilities Part II: Relativized Descriptions and Popperian Propensities, Founds. of Phys., 235-312, Vol. 22, 1992
• Toward a Factually induced Spacetime Quantum Logic, Found. of Phys., Vol. 22, no 7, p. 963–994, 1992
• From Quantum Mechanics to Universal Structures of Conceptualization and Feedback on Quantum Mechanics, Found. of Phys., Vol. 23, no 1, 37-122, 1993
• Quantum Probabilities, Komogorov probabilities, and Informational Probabilities, Int. J. of Theor. Phys., Vol. 33, no 1, p. 53–90, 1994
• Une méthode de conceptualisation relativisée..., Revue Int. de Systémique, Vol. 9, p. 269–303, 1995
• Objectivity and Descriptional Relativities, Foundations of Science 7, p. 73–180, 2002
• Quantum Mechanics versus a Method of Relativized Conceptualization, in Quantum Mechanics, Mathematics, Cognition and Action, Proposals for a Formalized Epistemology, M. Mugur-Schächter and Alwyn Van Der Merwe eds., Kluwer Academic, 2002, p. 109–307;
• Sur le tissage des connaissances3, livre, Hermès-Lavoisier, 2006
• L'infra-mécanique quantique arXiv:0903.4976v1 [quant-ph], 2009
• Infra-Quantum Mechanics and Conceptual Invalidation of Bell's Theorem on Non-Locality (en français), arXiv:0903.4976v3 [quant-ph], 2013
• On the Concept of Probability, in Special issue on Probabilities, Randomness and Statistics, in Mathematical Structures in Computer Science, Cambridge University Press, M. Mugur-Schächter invited ed., 2014
• Principles of a Second Quantum Mechanics rooted in factuality and constructed bottom-up, arXiv:1506.00431v4 [quant-ph]
• L'Infra-Mécanique Quantique, Indéterminisme, Non-Localité, livre, Éditions Universitaires Européennes, 2017
• Synthetic Exposition 2023 of a Factual Second Quantum Mechanics rooted into the A-conceptual Physical Factuality and developed fully Bottom-Up inside a Theory of Relativized Factual Probabilities generated by a Method of Relativized Conceptualization, M. Mugur-Schächter, April 2024, ResearchGate.

• Constructivist epistemology

• Her web site
• Introduction of the collective book "QUANTUM MECHANICS, MATHEMATICS, COGNITION AND ACTION : Proposals for a formalized epistemology"
• Article "Quantum mechanics versus a method of relativized conceptualization"