Critical Remarks on the Interpretation of Quantum Theory

Alfred Lands

Ishwar S Singh, M. A. B. Whitaker

L. E. Ballentine

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Thomas Görnitz, Holger Lyre

L. E. Ballentine

Einstein's arguments concerning the interpretation of quantum mechanics are reviewed and contrasted with certain misconceptions regarding his attitude toward the theory. He considered Born's statistical interpretation to be the only satisfactory one, and he was not a supporter of hidden-variable theories such as that of Bohm. His criticism of the interpretation accepted, at least tacitly, by many physicists was that the quantum state function does not provide a description of an individual system but rather of an ensemble of similar systems. This criticism was not based merely upon his famous remark that God does not play dice, but upon some definite physical arguments which did not assume determinism.

Federico G. Lopez Armengol, Gustavo Esteban Romero

Quantum Mechanics is a fundamental physical theory about atomic-scale processes. It was built between 1920 and 1940 by the most distinguished physicists of that time. The accordance between the predictions of the theory and experimental results is remarkable. The physical interpretation of its mathematical constructs, however, raised unprecedented controversies. Ontological, semantic, and epistemic vagueness abound in the orthodox interpretations and have resulted in serious misunderstandings that are often repeated in textbooks and elsewhere. In this work, we identify, criticize, and clarify the most spread ones.