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Peaceful Coexistence: Examining Kent's Relativistic Solution to the Quantum Measurement Problem

Butterfield, Jeremy (2017) Peaceful Coexistence: Examining Kent's Relativistic Solution to the Quantum Measurement Problem. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Can there be `peaceful coexistence' between quantum theory and special relativity? Thirty years ago, Shimony hoped that isolating the culprit (i.e. the false assumption) in proofs of Bell inequalities as Outcome Independence would secure such peaceful coexistence: or, if not secure it, at least show a way---maybe the best or only way---to secure it.

In this paper, I begin by being sceptical of Shimony's approach, urging that we need a relativistic solution to the quantum measurement problem (Section 2). Then I analyse Outcome Independence in Kent's realist one-world Lorentz-invariant interpretation of quantum theory (Sections 3 and 4). Then I consider Shimony's other condition, Parameter Independence, both in Kent's proposal and more generally, in the light of recent remarkable theorems by Colbeck, Renner and Leegwater (Section 5).

For both Outcome Independence and Parameter Independence, there is a striking analogy with the situation in pilot-wave theory. Finally, I will suggest that these recent theorems make some kind of peaceful coexistence mandatory for someone who, like Shimony, endorses Parameter Independence.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Butterfield, Jeremyjb56@cam.ac.uk
Additional Information: Forthcoming in the Proceedings of the 2015 Nagoya Winter Workshop on Reality and Measurement in Quantum Theory
Keywords: Peaceful coexistence, Shimony, Kent, Outcome Independence, Parameter Independence, measurement problem, Lorentz-invariance, pilot-wave theory
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Depositing User: Jeremy Butterfield
Date Deposited: 19 Oct 2017 15:52
Last Modified: 19 Oct 2017 15:52
Item ID: 14040
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory
Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Date: October 2017
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/14040

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