209 research outputs found
Violation of Bell's inequalities in a quantum realistic framework
We discuss the recently observed "loophole free" violation of Bell's
inequalities in the framework of a physically realist view of quantum
mechanics, which requires that physical properties are attributed jointly to a
system, and to the context in which it is embedded. This approach is clearly
different from classical realism, but it does define a meaningful "quantum
realism" from a general philosophical point of view. Consistently with Bell
test experiments, this quantum realism embeds some form of non-locality, but
does not contain any action at a distance, in agreement with quantum mechanics.Comment: This article is closely related to arxiv:1409.2120, with some parts
condensed and others expanded, in order to spell out how the present approach
explains quantum non-locality. In v2 some clarifications and improvements
following referees remark
Quantum realism is consistent with quantum facts
Despite the unparalleled accuracy of quantum-theoretical predictions across
an enormous range of phenomena, the theory's foundations are still in doubt.
The theory deviates radically from classical physics, predicts counterintuitive
phenomena, and seems inconsistent. The biggest stumbling block is measurement,
where the Schrodinger equation's unitary evolution seems inconsistent with
collapse. These doubts have inspired a variety of proposed interpretations and
alterations of the theory. Most interpretations posit the theory represents
only observed appearances rather than reality. The realistic interpretations,
on the other hand, posit entities such as other universes, hidden variables,
artificial collapse mechanisms, or human minds, that are not found in the
standard mathematical formulation. Surprisingly, little attention has been paid
to the possibility that the standard theory is both realistic and correct as it
stands. This paper examines several controversial issues, namely quantization,
field particle duality, quantum randomness, superposition, entanglement,
non-locality, and measurement, to argue that standard quantum physics,
realistically interpreted, is consistent with all of them.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl
Pragmatist Quantum Realism
Realism comes in many varieties, in science and elsewhere. Van Fraassen's influential formulation took scientific realism to include the view that science aims to give us, in its theories, a literally true story of what the world is like. So understood, a quantum realist takes quantum theory to aim at correctly representing the world: many would add that its success justifies
believing this representation is more or less correct. But quantum realism has been understood both more narrowly and more broadly.
A pragmatist considers use prior to representation and this has prompted some to dub pragmatist views anti-realist, including the view of quantum theory I have been developing recently. But whether a pragmatist view
of quantum theory should be labeled anti-realist depends not only on its ingredients but also on how that label should be applied. Pragmatism offers a healthy diet of quantum realism
Pragmatist Quantum Realism
Realism comes in many varieties, in science and elsewhere. Van Fraassen's influential formulation took scientific realism to include the view that science aims to give us, in its theories, a literally true story of what the world is like. So understood, a quantum realist takes quantum theory to aim at correctly representing the world: many would add that its success justifies
believing this representation is more or less correct. But quantum realism has been understood both more narrowly and more broadly.
A pragmatist considers use prior to representation and this has prompted some to dub pragmatist views anti-realist, including the view of quantum theory I have been developing recently. But whether a pragmatist view
of quantum theory should be labeled anti-realist depends not only on its ingredients but also on how that label should be applied. Pragmatism offers a healthy diet of quantum realism
Statistical VS Wave Realism in the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
Different realistic attitudes towards wavefunctions and quantum states are as old as quantum theory itself. Recently Pusey, Barret and Rudolph (PBR) on the one hand, and Auletta and Tarozzi (AT) on the other, have proposed new interesting arguments in favor of a broad realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics that can be considered the modern heir to some views held by the fathers of quantum theory. In this paper we give a new and detailed presentation of such arguments, propose a new taxonomy of different realistic positions in the foundations of quantum mechanics and assess the scope, within this new taxonomy, of these realistic arguments
Quantum realism: axiomatization and quantification
The emergence of an objective reality in line with the laws of the
microscopic world has been the focus of longstanding debates. Recent approaches
seem to have reached a consensus at least with respect to one aspect, namely,
that the encoding of information about a given observable in a physical degree
of freedom is a necessary condition for such observable to become an element of
the physical reality. Taking this as a fundamental premise and inspired by
quantum information theory, here we build an axiomatization for quantum realism
-- a notion of realism compatible with quantum theory. Our strategy consists of
listing some physically-motivated principles able to characterize quantum
realism in a ``metric'' independent manner. We introduce some criteria defining
monotones and measures of realism and then search for potential candidates
within some celebrated information theories -- those induced by the von
Neumann, R\'enyi, and Tsallis entropies. We explicitly construct some classes
of entropic quantifiers that are shown to satisfy (almost all of) the proposed
axioms and hence can be taken as faithful estimates for the degree of reality
(or definiteness) of a given physical observable. Hopefully, our framework may
offer a formal ground for further discussions on foundational aspects of
quantum mechanics.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
- …