A sharper formulation is presented for an interpretation of quantum mechanics advocated by author. As an essential element we put forward conservation laws concerning the ontological nature of a variable, and the uncertainties concerning the realisation of states. Quantum mechanics can then be treated as a device that combines statistics with mechanical, deterministic laws, such that uncertainties are passed on from initial states to final states.
A sharper formulation is presented for an interpretation of quantum mechanics advocated by author. As an essential element we put forward conservation laws concerning the ontological nature of a variable, and the uncertainties concerning the realisation of states. Quantum mechanics can then be treated as a device that combines statistics with mechanical, deterministic laws, such that uncertainties are passed on from initial states to final states.
A sharper formulation is presented for an interpretation of quantum mechanics advocated by the author. We claim that only those quantum theories should be considered for which an ontological basis can be constructed. In terms of this basis, the entire theory can be considered as being deterministic. An example is illustrated: massless, noninteracting fermions are ontological. Subsequently, as an essential element of the deterministic interpretation, we put forward conservation laws concerning the ontological nature of a variable, and the uncertainties concerning the realization of states. Quantum mechanics can then be treated as a device that combines statistics with mechanical, deterministic laws, such that uncertainties are passed on from initial states to final states.
This book discusses the ontology in the quantum world and argues that it should be interpreted as a historicized ontology. This perspective is advocated by the quantum histories interpretation. Inspired by the nomological interpretation from Bohmian mechanics and the corresponding understanding of the law of nature and logic, the ontology will be useful to solve the difficulties of confusing ontology and perplexing logical inference. Furthermore, this book proposes that the historicized ontology can be generalized to more complicated structures and fit naturally into temporal correlation. Core philosophical issues such as the law of nature, the ontology of events, history, and processes, and the metaphysics of history are coherently discussed, revealing the profound meaning behind the formalism of quantum histories. By providing a new framework for a historicized picture of ontology, it will effectively promote the debates in the philosophy of physics and the fundamental research in quantum mechanics. This book will appeal to scholars and students of the philosophy of science, metaphysics, and quantum theory.
Abstract Although the basic approach of the many-worlds interpretation is that the ontology of our universe is a unitarily evolving highly entangled wavefunction, we live in a world in which we only perceive a tiny part of the global wavefunction, and the quantum state corresponding to our world does not evolve unitarily, making our world an effectively open system. Recently, the common approach that within a world conservation laws hold only for an ensemble of measurements was questioned. This chapter analyses how this can affect viewing worlds as open systems and proposes a possible resolution of the unitarity puzzle.
Ontological questions, concerning the nature of reality, continue to be argued in both the scientific and general literature, and new experiments may be proposed to move ontological questions into the instrumental category for resolution. This chapter contends that all interpretations of quantum mechanics are weird when considered from classical, everyday viewpoints. Readers holding classical world views should not expect to find intuitively-pleasing explanations of quantum mechanics; scientists much smarter than us have failed in this quest over the past century.
This work presents a historical-epistemological analysis of the foundations of quantum mechanics. From a philosophical point of view, the relationships between quantum mechanics and scientific realism are highlighted, as well as the influence of the neo-positivist philosophy of the first decades of the 20th century. The great significance of measurement in the context of quantum mechanics is underlined, as an essential element in providing a coherent description of reality moving from the microcosm to the macrocosm, as well as the role that the measurement apparatus and the consciousness of the observer assume during the act of measurement, the ontological problem, the problem of the objectification of the wave function and the problem of the definition of discernibility. This is followed by an overview of the most important alternative proposals to the standard interpretation (Copenhagen interpretation), with particular reference to hidden variable theories, and other alternatives to standard quantum mechanics that profoundly modify the vision of reality, such as the Everett’s many-worlds theory, the QBism, the unified holistic approach.
In the paradigmatic example of quantum measurements, whenever one measures a system which starts in a superposition of two states of a conserved quantity, it jumps to one of the two states, implying different final values for the quantity that should have been conserved. The standard law of conservation for quantum mechanics handles this jump by stating only that the total distribution of the conserved quantity over repeated measurements is unchanged, but states nothing about individual cases. Here however we show that one can go beyond this and have conservation in each individual instance. We made our arguments in the case of angular momentum of a particle on a circle, where many technicalities simplify, and bring arguments to show that this holds in full generality. Hence we argue that the conservation law in quantum mechanics should be rewritten, to go beyond its hitherto statistical formulation, to state that the total of a conserved quantity is unchanged in every individual measurement outcome. As a further crucial element, we show that conservation can be localised at the level of the system of interest and its relevant frame of reference, and is independent on any assumptions on the distribution of the conserved quantity over the entire universe.