Switch to: References

Add citations

You must login to add citations.
  1. Simulating Nelsonian Quantum Field Theory.Andrea Carosso - 2024 - Foundations of Physics 54 (3):1-31.
    We describe the picture of physical processes suggested by Edward Nelson’s stochastic mechanics when generalized to quantum field theory regularized on a lattice, after an introductory review of his theory applied to the hydrogen atom. By performing numerical simulations of the relevant stochastic processes, we observe that Nelson’s theory provides a means of generating typical field configurations for any given quantum state. In particular, an intuitive picture is given of the field “beable”—to use a phrase of John Stewart Bell—corresponding to (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • (1 other version)Wave Function Realism.Alyssa Ney - 3105–3124
    This is an introduction to wave function realism for a compendium on the philosophy of quantum mechanics that will be edited and translated into Portuguese by Raoni Arroyo, entitled Compêndio de Filosofia da Física Quântica. This essay presents the history of wave function realism, its various interpretations, the main arguments that are given for the position, and the main objections that have been raised to it.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • Can the Ontology of Bohmian Mechanics Consists Only in Particles? The PBR Theorem Says No.Shan Gao - 2023 - Foundations of Physics 53 (6):1-21.
    The meaning of the wave function is an important unresolved issue in Bohmian mechanics. On the one hand, according to the nomological view, the wave function of the universe or the universal wave function is nomological, like a law of nature. On the other hand, the PBR theorem proves that the wave function in quantum mechanics or the effective wave function in Bohmian mechanics is ontic, representing the ontic state of a physical system in the universe. It is usually thought (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  • Three arguments for wave function realism.Alyssa Ney - 2023 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 13 (4):1-18.
    Wave function realism is an interpretative framework for quantum theories which recommends taking the central ontology of these theories to consist of the quantum wave function, understood as a field on a high-dimensional space. This paper presents and evaluates three standard arguments for wave function realism, and clarifies the sort of ontological framework these arguments support.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  • On the Existence of a Preserved Ontology Posited by a High-Dimensional Bohmian Interpretation.Jorge Manero - forthcoming - Foundations of Science:1-22.
    It has been argued that in the context of Bohm’s approach to quantum mechanics, the postulation of a three-dimensional ontology (as opposed to a high-dimensional one) is presumed to be the only interpretation that may reliably support object-oriented realism by virtue of the fact that this ontology is approximately preserved through scientific change, at least in the classical–quantum transition. Based on an interpretative analysis of the Bohmian formulation, I shall critically evaluate the tenability of this argument. In so doing, I (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Is the Statistical Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics ψ-Ontic or ψ-Epistemic?Mario Hubert - 2023 - Foundations of Physics 53 (16):1-23.
    The ontological models framework distinguishes ψ-ontic from ψ-epistemic wave- functions. It is, in general, quite straightforward to categorize the wave-function of a certain quantum theory. Nevertheless, there has been a debate about the ontological status of the wave-function in the statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics: is it ψ-epistemic and incomplete or ψ-ontic and complete? I will argue that the wave- function in this interpretation is best regarded as ψ-ontic and incomplete.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • What is It Like to be a Relativistic GRW Theory? Or: Quantum Mechanics and Relativity, Still in Conflict After All These Years.Valia Allori - 2022 - Foundations of Physics 52 (4):1-28.
    The violation of Bell’s inequality has shown that quantum theory and relativity are in tension: reality is nonlocal. Nonetheless, many have argued that GRW-type theories are to be preferred to pilot-wave theories as they are more compatible with relativity: while relativistic pilot-wave theories require a preferred slicing of space-time, foliation-free relativistic GRW-type theories have been proposed. In this paper I discuss various meanings of ‘relativistic invariance,’ and I show how GRW-type theories, while being more relativistic in one sense, are less (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Quantum correlations and the explanatory power of radical metaphysical hypotheses.Nina Emery - 2022 - Philosophical Studies 179 (7):2391-2414.
    I argue that, in at least one important sense, the hypothesis that you are a brain in a vat provides better explanations than the explanations provided by standard ways of interpreting our best scientific theories. This puts pressure on anyone who—like me!—wishes to resist taking this radical hypothesis seriously when doing science and scientifically-informed metaphysics. Insofar as our resistance is justified, it can’t be justified simply by claiming that the brain in a vast hypothesis is explanatorily impoverished.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • The physics and metaphysics of Tychistic Bohmian Mechanics.Patrick Duerr & Alexander Ehmann - 2021 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 90:168-183.
    The paper takes up Bell's “Everett theory” and develops it further. The resulting theory is about the system of all particles in the universe, each located in ordinary, 3-dimensional space. This many-particle system as a whole performs random jumps through 3N-dimensional configuration space – hence “Tychistic Bohmian Mechanics”. The distribution of its spontaneous localisations in configuration space is given by the Born Rule probability measure for the universal wavefunction. Contra Bell, the theory is argued to satisfy the minimal desiderata for (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  • Essays on the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics.Eddy Keming Chen - 2019 - Dissertation, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
    What is the proper metaphysics of quantum mechanics? In this dissertation, I approach the question from three different but related angles. First, I suggest that the quantum state can be understood intrinsically as relations holding among regions in ordinary space-time, from which we can recover the wave function uniquely up to an equivalence class (by representation and uniqueness theorems). The intrinsic account eliminates certain conventional elements (e.g. overall phase) in the representation of the quantum state. It also dispenses with first-order (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • The metaphysics of decoherence.Antonio Vassallo & Davide Romano - 2023 - Erkenntnis 88 (6):2609–2631.
    The paper investigates the type of realism that best suits the framework of decoherence taken at face value without postulating a plurality of worlds, or additional hidden variables, or non-unitary dynamical mechanisms. It is argued that this reading of decoherence leads to an extremely radical type of perspectival realism, especially when cosmological decoherence is considered.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Cosmic hylomorphism: A powerist ontology of quantum mechanics.William M. R. Simpson - 2021 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (1):1-25.
    The primitive ontology approach to quantum mechanics seeks to account for quantum phenomena in terms of a distribution of matter in three-dimensional space and a law of nature that describes its temporal development. This approach to explaining quantum phenomena is compatible with either a Humean or powerist account of laws. In this paper, I offer a powerist ontology in which the law is specified by Bohmian mechanics for a global configuration of particles. Unlike in other powerist ontologies, however, this law (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  • The Past Hypothesis and the Nature of Physical Laws.Eddy Keming Chen - 2023 - In Barry Loewer, Brad Weslake & Eric B. Winsberg (eds.), The Probability Map of the Universe: Essays on David Albert’s _Time and Chance_. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 204-248.
    If the Past Hypothesis underlies the arrows of time, what is the status of the Past Hypothesis? In this paper, I examine the role of the Past Hypothesis in the Boltzmannian account and defend the view that the Past Hypothesis is a candidate fundamental law of nature. Such a view is known to be compatible with Humeanism about laws, but as I argue it is also supported by a minimal non-Humean "governing'' view. Some worries arise from the non-dynamical and time-dependent (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   16 citations  
  • Multi-field and Bohm’s theory.Davide Romano - 2020 - Synthese (11):29 June 2020.
    In the recent literature, it has been shown that the wave function in the de Broglie–Bohm theory can be regarded as a new kind of field, i.e., a "multi-field", in three-dimensional space. In this paper, I argue that the natural framework for the multi-field is the original second-order Bohm’s theory. In this context, it is possible: i) to construe the multi-field as a real-valued scalar field; ii) to explain the physical interaction between the multi-field and the Bohmian particles; and iii) (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   14 citations  
  • Time's Arrow in a Quantum Universe: On the Status of Statistical Mechanical Probabilities.Eddy Keming Chen - 2020 - In Valia Allori (ed.), Statistical Mechanics and Scientific Explanation: Determinism, Indeterminism and Laws of Nature. Singapore: World Scientific. pp. 479–515.
    In a quantum universe with a strong arrow of time, it is standard to postulate that the initial wave function started in a particular macrostate---the special low-entropy macrostate selected by the Past Hypothesis. Moreover, there is an additional postulate about statistical mechanical probabilities according to which the initial wave function is a ''typical'' choice in the macrostate. Together, they support a probabilistic version of the Second Law of Thermodynamics: typical initial wave functions will increase in entropy. Hence, there are two (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   14 citations  
  • Realism about the wave function.Eddy Keming Chen - 2019 - Philosophy Compass 14 (7):e12611.
    A century after the discovery of quantum mechanics, the meaning of quantum mechanics still remains elusive. This is largely due to the puzzling nature of the wave function, the central object in quantum mechanics. If we are realists about quantum mechanics, how should we understand the wave function? What does it represent? What is its physical meaning? Answering these questions would improve our understanding of what it means to be a realist about quantum mechanics. In this survey article, I review (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   39 citations  
  • Quantum Mechanics in a Time-Asymmetric Universe: On the Nature of the Initial Quantum State.Eddy Keming Chen - 2021 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 72 (4):1155–1183.
    In a quantum universe with a strong arrow of time, we postulate a low-entropy boundary condition to account for the temporal asymmetry. In this paper, I show that the Past Hypothesis also contains enough information to simplify the quantum ontology and define a unique initial condition in such a world. First, I introduce Density Matrix Realism, the thesis that the quantum universe is described by a fundamental density matrix that represents something objective. This stands in sharp contrast to Wave Function (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   32 citations  
  • On The Methodological Arguments for Wave−Function Realism.Vera Matarese - 2022 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 34 (2):63-80.
    The paper explores a particular line of objection against wave-function realism. This view, advocated by Bell and presently defended by Albert, North and Ney, claims tha...
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • The Theory of Every Thing: Toward a Symmetry-Based Metaphysics of Matter.David Schroeren - 2020 - Dissertation, Princeton University
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Scientific Realism without the Wave-Function: An Example of Naturalized Quantum Metaphysics.Valia Allori - 2020 - In Juha Saatsi & Steven French (eds.), Scientific Realism and the Quantum. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    Scientific realism is the view that our best scientific theories can be regarded as (approximately) true. This is connected with the view that science, physics in particular, and metaphysics could (and should) inform one another: on the one hand, science tells us what the world is like, and on the other hand, metaphysical principles allow us to select between the various possible theories which are underdetermined by the data. Nonetheless, quantum mechanics has always been regarded as, at best, puzzling, if (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  • On the possibility of a realist ontological commitment in quantum mechanics.Andrea Oldofredi & Michael Andreas Esfeld - 2018 - Tropos. Journal of Hermeneutics and Philosophical Criticism 11 (1):11-33.
    This paper reviews the structure of standard quantum mechanics, introducing the basics of the von Neumann-Dirac axiomatic formulation as well as the well-known Copenhagen interpretation. We review also the major conceptual difficulties arising from this theory, first and foremost, the well-known measurement problem. The main aim of this essay is to show the possibility to solve the conundrums affecting quantum mechanics via the methodology provided by the primitive ontology approach. Using Bohmian mechanics as an example, the paper argues for a (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • Separability and fundamentality.Claudio Calosi - 2024 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 14 (4):1-18.
    According to High-Dimensional Wavefunction Fundamentalism (HDWF) the wavefunction field evolving in configuration space is all that exists fundamentally. The main argument in favor of HDWF is an argument from separability and locality: separability is a desirable feature of a fundamental metaphysics and HDWF is indeed such a separable metaphysics. Separability in turn is desirable because it is simple and intuitive. Tim Maudlin has recently argued that intuitiveness and simplicity cannot motivate separability. In particular, our intuitions stem from our interactions with (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Wave-functionalism.Valia Allori - 2021 - Synthese 199 (5-6):12271-12293.
    In this paper I present a new perspective for interpreting the wavefunction as a non-material, non-epistemic, non-representational entity. I endorse a functional view according to which the wavefunction is defined by its roles in the theory. I argue that this approach shares some similarities with the nomological account of the wave function as well as with the pragmatist and epistemic approaches to quantum theory, while avoiding the major objections of these alternatives.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  • Electron Charge Density: A Clue from Quantum Chemistry for Quantum Foundations.Charles T. Sebens - 2021 - Foundations of Physics 51 (4):1-39.
    Within quantum chemistry, the electron clouds that surround nuclei in atoms and molecules are sometimes treated as clouds of probability and sometimes as clouds of charge. These two roles, tracing back to Schrödinger and Born, are in tension with one another but are not incompatible. Schrödinger’s idea that the nucleus of an atom is surrounded by a spread-out electron charge density is supported by a variety of evidence from quantum chemistry, including two methods that are used to determine atomic and (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  • The Intrinsic Structure of Quantum Mechanics.Eddy Keming Chen - 2019 - In Essays on the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics. pp. Chapter 1.
    The wave function in quantum mechanics presents an interesting challenge to our understanding of the physical world. In this paper, I show that the wave function can be understood as four intrinsic relations on physical space. My account has three desirable features that the standard account lacks: it does not refer to any abstract mathematical objects, it is free from the usual arbitrary conventions, and it explains why the wave function has its gauge degrees of freedom, something that are usually (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   21 citations  
  • On the Galilean Invariance of the Pilot-Wave Theory.Valia Allori - 2022 - Foundations of Physics 52 (5):1-21.
    Many agree that the pilot-wave theory is to be understood as a first-order theory, in which the law constrains the velocity of the particles. However, while Dürr, Goldstein and Zanghì maintain that the pilot-wave theory is Galilei invariant, Valentini argues that such a symmetry is mathematical but it has no physical significance. Moreover, some wavefunction realists insist that the pilot-wave theory is not Galilei invariant in any sense. It has been maintained by some that this disagreement originates in the disagreement (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Bohmian Mechanics: Realism and the “Box” Experiment.Chunling Yan - 2020 - Foundations of Science 26 (2):429-451.
    It is difficult to articulate how we should take a realist attitude towards Bohmian mechanics because there are many versions of it. This paper aims to clarify the realist commitments of Bohmian mechanics and how we can understand it from a general scientific realist perspective. I use the box experiment, a double-slit like experiment conducted by Cardone et al. :1–13, 2004; Int J Mod Phys B 20:1107–1121, 2006), as a working example to argue that a causal realist account that is (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Wavefunction realism does not ‘privilege position’.David Schroeren - 2022 - Synthese 200 (1):1-14.
    It is common ground among proponents and detractors of wavefunction realism that the view ‘privileges position’, in the sense that it arbitrarily singles out one among a continuum infinity of wavefunction representations as characterizing the fundamental field: the position representation. This paper shows that, properly understood, wavefunction realism does not involve such an arbitrary choice. First, I argue that, though each wavefunction representation gives rise to a different version of wavefunction realism, the difference between these theories amounts to a mere (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • Symmetry fundamentalism in quantum mechanics.David Schroeren - 2021 - Philosophical Studies 178 (12):3995-4024.
    Modern particle physics suggests an intriguing vision of physical reality: we are to imagine the symmetries of the world as fundamental, whereas the material constituents of the world are ontologically derivative of them. This paper develops a novel ontology for non-relativistic quantum mechanics which gives precise metaphysical content to this vision.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  • The Point of Primitive Ontology.Paula Reichert & Dustin Lazarovici - 2022 - Foundations of Physics 52 (6):1-18.
    AbstractBohmian mechanics grounds the predictions of quantum mechanics in precise dynamical laws for a primitive ontology of point particles. In an appraisal of the de-Broglie–Bohm theory, the paper discusses the crucial epistemological and conceptual role that a primitive ontology plays within a physical theory. It argues that quantum theories without primitive ontology fail to make contact with observable reality in a clear and consistent manner. Finally, it discusses Einstein’s epistemological model and why it supports the primitive ontology approach.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • A Puzzle for the Field Ontologists.Shan Gao - 2020 - Foundations of Physics 50 (11):1541-1553.
    It has been widely thought that the wave function describes a real, physical field in a realist interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this paper, I present a new analysis of the field ontology for the wave function. First, I argue that the non-existence of self-interactions for a quantum system such as an electron poses a puzzle for the field ontologists. If the wave function represents a physical field, then it seems odd that there are (electromagnetic and gravitational) interactions between the (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  • Against the field ontology of quantum mechanics.Shan Gao - unknown
    It has been widely thought that the ontology of quantum mechanics is real, physical fields. In this paper, I will present a new argument against the field ontology of quantum mechanics by analyzing one-body systems such as an electron. First, I argue that if the physical entity described by the wave function of an electron is a field, then this field is massive and charged. Next, I argue that if a field is massive and charged, then any two parts of (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark