Quantum mechanics in a two-dimensional spacetime: What is a wavefunction?

Sergio A. Hojman, Felipe A. Asenjo

Mary Leng

I argue that wavefunction realism – the view that quantum mechanics reveals the fundamental ontology of the world to be a field on a high-dimensional spacetime – must be rejected as (a) relying on artefacts of too-simple versions of quantum mechanics, and (b) not conceptually well motivated even were those too-simple versions exactly correct. I end with some brief comments on the role of spacetime in any satisfactory account of the metaphysics of extant quantum theories.

David Z. Albert

David Wallace

I argue that wavefunction realism --- the view that quantum mechanics reveals the fundamental ontology of the world to be a field on a high-dimensional spacetime, must be rejected as (a) relying on artefacts of too-simple versions of quantum mechanics, and (b) not conceptually well-motivated even were those too-simple versions exactly correct. I end with some brief comments on the role of spacetime in any satisfactory account of the metaphysics of extant quantum theories.

Alto Osada, Rekishu Yamazaki, Atsushi Noguchi

Philip J. Carter

We approach the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime by considering the properties of the wavefunction. On the basis of observed retrocausal effects and consequent time-symmetric approaches to QM we conclude that the wavefunction is extended in time as well as in space, and hence is minimally a 4-dimensional entity occupying a 4-space resembling the Block Universe. On this basis we erect a higher-dimensional spacetime framework accounting for nonlocality and retrocausality while providing insight into the origins of time, space, mass and inertia. We elucidate relativistic mass and derive the mass transformation equation according to Special Relativity from quantum mechanical and relativistic principles. The framework is shown to provide a spatial context for Kaluza’s 5D Einstein-Maxwell theory and the internal symmetries of the Standard Model.