Gao, Shan (2020) A Puzzle for the Field Ontologists. Foundations of Physics.
|
Text
field 2020an.pdf Download (338kB) | Preview |
Abstract
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 fields of two electrons but no interactions between two parts of the field of an electron. Next, I argue that the three solutions a field ontologist may provide are not fully satisfactory. Finally, I propose a solution of this puzzle that leads to a particle ontological interpretation of the wave function.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
||||||
| Keywords: | Quantum mechanics; Wave function; Field ontology; Self-interactions; Particle ontology | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics |
||||||
| Depositing User: | Prof. Shan Gao | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 03 Nov 2020 00:20 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 03 Nov 2020 00:20 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 18347 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Foundations of Physics | ||||||
| Publisher: | Springer Nature | ||||||
| Official URL: | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10701-0... | ||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | 10.1007/s10701-020-00390-0 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics |
||||||
| Date: | 31 October 2020 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/18347 |
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}