Butterfield, Jeremy (2013) Assessing the Montevideo Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics. ISSN 1355-2198
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png)
|
PDF (This is a philosophical assessment of the Montevideo interpretation of quantum theory, advocated by Gambini, Pullin and co-authors.)
AssessMVarxivafterpublish.pdf Download (270kB) |
Abstract
This paper gives a philosophical assessment of the Montevideo interpretation of quantum theory, advocated by Gambini, Pullin and co-authors. This interpretation has the merit of linking its proposal about how to solve the measurement problem to the search for quantum gravity: namely by suggesting that quantum gravity makes for fundamental limitations on the accuracy of clocks, which imply a type of decoherence that “collapses the wave-packet”.
I begin (Section 2) by sketching the topics of decoherence, and quantum clocks, on which the interpretation depends. Then I expound the interpretation, from a philosopher's perspective (Sections 3, 4 and 5). Finally, in Section 6, I argue that the interpretation, at least as developed so far, is best seen as a form of the Everett interpretation: namely with an effective or approximate branching, that is induced by environmental decoherence of the familiar kind, and by the Montevideans’ “temporal decoherence”.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
||||||
| Keywords: | Montevideo interpretation; quantum clocks; decoherence; Everett interpretation | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Gravity Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics |
||||||
| Depositing User: | Jeremy Butterfield | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 18 Jun 2014 14:33 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 18 Jun 2014 14:33 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 10761 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics | ||||||
| Publisher: | Elsevier | ||||||
| Official URL: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S... | ||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | 10.1016/j.shpsb.2014.04.001 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Gravity Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics |
||||||
| Date: | September 2013 | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1355-2198 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10761 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Altmetric.com
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}