I identify and characterize a type of noncausal explanation in physics. I first introduce a distinction, between the physical properties of a system, and the representational properties of the mathematical expressions of the system’s physical properties. Then I introduce a novel kind of property, which I shall call a dual property. This is a special kind of representational property, one for which there is an interpretation as a physical property. It is these dual properties that, I claim, are amenable to noncausal (mathematical, in fact) explanations. I discuss a typical example of such a dual property, and an example of an explanation as to why that dual property holds (the explanation of the quantization of the linear momentum).

我识别并描述了物理学中的一种非因果解释。我首先介绍系统的物理属性和系统物理属性的数学表达式的表征属性之间的区别。然后我介绍一种新颖的财产，我将其称为双重财产。这是一种特殊的表征属性，可以将其解释为物理属性。我声称，正是这些双重属性可以用非因果（实际上是数学）解释。我讨论了这种对偶性质的典型示例，以及解释为什么该对偶性质成立的示例（线性动量量化的解释）。