An argument against the realistic interpretation of the wave function

DOI10.1007/S10701-016-0032-9MaRDI QIDQ2360327zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Carlo Rovelli

Publication date 3 July 2017

Published in Foundations of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1508.05533

zbMATH Keywords

wave functionrealismtime reversal invariance

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Closed and approximate solutions to the Schrödinger, Dirac, Klein-Gordon and other equations of quantum mechanics (81Q05) Finite-dimensional groups and algebras motivated by physics and their representations (81R05)

Abstract: Testable predictions of quantum mechanics are invariant under time reversal. But the change of the quantum state in time is not so, neither in the collapse nor in the no-collapse interpretations of the theory. This fact challenges the realistic interpretation of the quantum state. On the other hand, this fact follows easily if we interpret the quantum state as a mere calculation device, bookkeeping past real quantum events. The same conclusion follows from the analysis of the meaning of the wave function in the semiclassical regime.

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Cited in

(15)

• An alternative foundation of quantum theory
• A quintet of quandaries: five No-Go theorems for relational quantum mechanics
• A general argument against the universal validity of the superposition principle
• Are quantum spins but small perturbations of ontological Ising spins?
• On the character of quantum law: Complementarity, entanglement, and information
• Neither presentism nor eternalism
• Quantum relational indeterminacy
• Fact-nets: towards a mathematical framework for relational quantum mechanics
• Relational quantum mechanics and the PBR theorem: a peaceful coexistence
• The bundle theory approach to relational quantum mechanics
• Appearance of thermal time
• The relational dissolution of the quantum measurement problems
• Markovian and non-Markovian quantum measurements
• Cellular automaton ontology, bits, qubits and the Dirac equation
• Can the two-time interpretation of quantum mechanics solve the measurement problem?

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