Realism and the wavefunction

DOI10.1088/0143-0807/23/3/307zbMATH Open1005.81004arXivquant-ph/0208018OpenAlexW1964304213MaRDI QIDQ3147343FDOQ3147343

Authors: A. Matzkin 

Publication date: 11 February 2003

Published in: European Journal of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Realism -- the idea that the concepts in physical theories refer to 'things' existing in the real world -- is introduced as a tool to analyze the status of the wave-function. Although the physical entities are recognized by the existence of invariant quantities, examples from classical and quantum physics suggest that not all the theoretical terms refer to the entities: some terms refer to properties of the entities, and some terms have only an epistemic function. In particular, it is argued that the wave-function may be written in terms of classical non-referring and epistemic terms. The implications for realist interpretations of quantum mechanics and on the teaching of quantum physics are examined.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0208018

Recommendations

• Laws of nature and the reality of the wave function
• Fundamental physical ontologies and the constraint of empirical coherence: a defense of wave function realism
• Quantum physics and reality
• The world in the wave function. A metaphysics for quantum physics
• Realism and the physical world

zbMATH Keywords

classical non-referring and epistemic terms

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05)

Cited In (5)

• The world in the wave function. A metaphysics for quantum physics
• Wavefunction reality, indeterminate properties and degrees of presence
• On the physical reality of quantum waves
• Laws of nature and the reality of the wave function
• What is a wavefunction?

This page was built for publication: Realism and the wavefunction

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q3147343)