Maudlin's challenge refuted: A reply to Lewis

DOI10.1016/J.SHPSB.2014.03.003zbMATH Open1294.81016arXiv1403.2791OpenAlexW2114867595MaRDI QIDQ407326FDOQ407326

Authors: Ruth E. Kastner 

Publication date: 29 August 2014

Published in: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Part B. Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Lewis has recently argued that Maudlin's contingent absorber experiment remains a significant problem for the Transactional Interpretation (TI). He argues that the only straightforward way to resolve the challenge is by describing the absorbers as offer waves, and asserts that this is a previously unnoticed aspect of the challenge for TI. This argument is refuted in two basic ways: (i) it is noted that the Maudlin experiment cannot be meaningfully recast with absorbers described by quantum states; instead the author replaces it with an ordinary which-way experiment; and (ii) the extant rebuttals to the Maudlin challenge in its original form are not in fact subject to the alleged flaws that Lewis ascribes to them. This paper further seeks to clarify the issues raised in Lewis' presentation concerning the distinction between quantum systems and macroscopic objects in TI. It is noted that the latest, possibilist version of TI (PTI) has no ambiguity concerning macroscopic absorbers. In particular, macroscopic objects are not subject to indeterminate trajectories, since they are continually undergoing collapse. It is concluded that the Maudlin challenge poses no significant problem for the transactional interpretation.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1403.2791

Recommendations

• The relativistic transactional interpretation: immune to the Maudlin challenge
• Retrocausal quantum mechanics: Maudlin's challenge revisited
• Cramer's transactional interpretation and causal loop problems
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zbMATH Keywords

transactional interpretationMaudlin experimentretrocausation

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Physics (00A79) General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05)

Cites Work

• The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Classical Electrodynamics in Terms of Direct Interparticle Action
• The possibilist transactional interpretation and relativity
• Absorbers in the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics
• Retrocausal quantum mechanics: Maudlin's challenge revisited
• Cramer's transactional interpretation and causal loop problems
• Solving the measurement problem: de Broglie-Bohm loses out to Everett

Cited In (1)

• On delayed choice and contingent absorber experiments

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