Potentiality States: Quantum versus Classical Emergence

Abstract: We identify emergence with the existence of states of potentiality related to relevant physical quantities. We introduce the concept of 'potentiality state' operationally and show how it reduces to 'superposition state' when standard quantum mechanics can be applied. We consider several examples to illustrate our approach, and define the potentiality states giving rise to emergence in each example. We prove that Bell inequalities are violated by the potentiality states in the examples, which, taking into account Pitowsky's theorem, experimentally indicates the presence of quantum structure in emergence. In the first example emergence arises because of the many ways water can be subdivided into different vessels. In the second example, we put forward a full quantum description of the Liar paradox situation, and identify the potentiality states, which in this case turn out to be superposition states. In the example of the soccer team, we show the difference between classical emergence as stable dynamical pattern and emergence defined by a potentiality state, and show how Bell inequalities can be violated in the case of highly contextual experiments.