Principles of Deductive Theoretical Physics

A deductive physical theory should in principle be a pure mathematical theory together with an identification of certain quantities/concepts ("observables") in the theory and corresponding observable entities in the real world. This identification - the "interpretation" of the theory - should be unproblematic, both for the theoretician and the experimentalist. A general basis for a deductive physical theory, comprising both classical and quantum physics in a unified way, is proposed. The theory is based on successive confidence estimates on quantum-mechanical wave functions corresponding to space-localizations of particles. This allows a direct and simple way of describing both macroscopic and microscopic phenomena by means of the same basic concepts. Central in the axiomatics of the outlined theory is a concept called equiangular sequences of projection operators. It describes a successive sequence of "collapses of the wave function". The proposed theory gives a basis for a general theory of irreversible processes based directly on quantum mechanics. It gives an alternative definition of entropy and an alternative derivation of entropy increase in irreversible processes.