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Speaker: Tom Banks (Rutgers University) 

Abstract: We investigate modifications of quantum mechanics (QM) that replace the unitary group in a finite dimensional Hilbert space with a finite group and determine the minimal sequence of subgroups necessary to approximate Q M arbitrarily closely for general choices of Hamiltonian. This mathematical study reveals novel insights about ’t Hooft’s Ontological Quantum Mechanics, and the derivation of statistical mechanics from quantum mechanics. We show that Kornyak’s proposal to understand QM as classical dynamics on a Hilbert space of one dimension higher than that describing the universe, supplemented by a choice of the value of a naturally conserved quantum operator in that classical evolution can probably be a model of the world we observe.