A New Ontological Interpretation of the Wave Function

Shan Gao

Published Dec 10, 2013• 0 citations

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an ontological interpretation of the wave function in terms of random discontinuous motion of particles. Ac-cording to this interpretation, the wave function of an N-body quan-tum system describes the state of random discontinuous motion of N particles, and in particular, the modulus squared of the wave function gives the probability density that the particles appear in every possible group of positions in space. We present three arguments supporting this new interpretation of the wave function. These arguments are mainly based on an analysis of the mass and charge properties of a quantum system. It is realized that the Schrödinger equation, which governs the evolution of a quantum system, contains more information about the system than the wave function of the system, such as the mass and charge properties of the system, which might help understand the ontological meaning of the wave function. Finally, we briefly an-alyze possible implications of the suggested ontological interpretation of the wave function for the solutions to the measurement problem. The wavefunction gives not the density of stuff, but gives rather (on squaring its modulus) the density of probability. Probability of what exactly? Not of the electron being there, but of the electron being found there, if its position is ‘measured’. Why this aversion to ‘being ’ and insistence on ‘finding’? The founding fathers were unable to form a clear picture of things on the remote atomic scale. (Bell 1990)

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