Book•
Quantum Mechanics: An Empiricist View
14 Nov 1991-
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a modal interpretation of quantum mechanics EPR and question of interpretation: when is a correlation not a mystery? the problem of identical particles indentical particles - individuation and modality.
Abstract: Part 1 Determinism and inderterminism in classical perspective: determinism indeterminism and probability. Part 2 How the phenomena demand quantum theory: the empirical basis of quantum theory new probability models and their logic. Part 3 Mathematical foundations: the basic theory of quantum mechanics composite systems, interaction, and measurement. Part 4 Questions of interpretation: critique of the standard interpretation modal interpretation of quantum mechanics EPR - when is a correlation not a mystery? the problem of identical particles indentical particles - individuation and modality.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the decoherence program, including its more recent results, and its application and consequences are investigated in the context of the main interpretive approaches of quantum mechanics. But their implications for the quantum measurement problem have remained a matter of great controversy.
Abstract: Environment-induced decoherence and superselection have been a subject of intensive research over the past two decades, yet their implications for the foundational problems of quantum mechanics, most notably the quantum measurement problem, have remained a matter of great controversy. This paper is intended to clarify key features of the decoherence program, including its more recent results, and to investigate their application and consequences in the context of the main interpretive approaches of quantum mechanics.
1,270 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider a reformulation of quantum mechanics in terms of information theory, where all systems are assumed to be equivalent, there is no observer-observed distinction, and the theory describes only the information that systems have about each other.
Abstract: I suggest that the common unease with taking quantum mechanics as a fundamental description of nature (the “measurement problem”) could derive from the use of an incorrect notion, as the unease with the Lorentz transformations before Einstein derived from the notion of observer-independent time. I suggest that this incorrect notion that generates the unease with quantum mechanics is the notion of “observer-independent state” of a system, or “observer-independent values of physical quantities.” I reformulate the problem of the “interpretation of quantum mechanics” as the problem of deriving the formalism from a set of simple physical postulates. I consider a reformulation of quantum mechanics in terms of information theory. All systems are assumed to be equivalent, there is no observer-observed distinction, and the theory describes only the information that systems have about each other; nevertheless, the theory is complete.
887 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an exhaustive review of the recent attempt to overcome the difficulties that standard quantum mechanics meets in accounting for the measurement (or macro-objectification) problem, an attempt based on the consideration of nonlinear and stochastic modifications of the Schrodinger equation.
761 citations
Journal Article•
754 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2008TL;DR: The picture theory of science as discussed by the authors is a theory of representation of, representation as and representation as 1.1 Representation of, Representation as 1: Imaging, Picturing, and Scaling 1.2 The Problem of Coordination 2.3 Pictorial Perspective and the Indexical 2.4 Measurement as Representation (2) Information 3.1 Appearance vs. Reality in the Sciences 4.2 Rejecting the Appearance from Reality Criterion
Abstract: Preface Introduction: the 'picture theory of science' PART ONE: REPRESENTATION 1.1 Representation of, Representation as 1.2 Imaging, Picturing, and Scaling 1.3 Pictorial Perspective and the Indexical PART TWO. WINDOWS, ENGINES, AND MEASUREMENT 2.1 A Window on the Invisible World (?) 2.2 The Problem of Coordination 2.3 Measurement as Representation (1) The Physical Correlate 2.4 Measurement as Representation (2) Information PART THREE. STRUCTURE AND PERSPECTIVE 3.1 From the Bildtheorie of science to paradox 3.2 The Longest Journey: Bertrand Russell 3.3 Carnap's Lost World and Putnam's Paradox 3.4 An Empiricist Structuralism PART FOUR. APPEARANCE AND REALITY 4.1 Appearance vs. Reality in the Sciences 4.2 Rejecting the Appearance from Reality Criterion APPENDICES BIBLIOGRAPHY NOTES
419 citations
Cites background from "Quantum Mechanics: An Empiricist Vi..."
...(van Fraassen 1991, p. 4) Thus, it‟s worthwhile to seek many solutions to the measurement problem, because each “solution” helps us to better understand the ways in which the theory could be true.4 But the last paragraph of Scientific Representation provides a potential challenge to that view....
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