Wallace, David (2022) The sky is blue, and other reasons quantum mechanics is not underdetermined by evidence. [Preprint]
|
Text
qm underdetermination.pdf Download (356kB) | Preview |
Abstract
I criticize the widely-defended view that the quantum measurement problem is an example of underdetermination of theory by evidence: more specifically, the view that the unmodified, unitary quantum formalism (interpreted following Everett) is empirically indistinguishable from Bohmian Mechanics and from dynamical-collapse theories like the GRW or CSL theories. I argue that there as yet no empirically successful generalization of either theory to interacting quantum field theory and so the apparent underdetermination is broken by a very large class of quantum experiments that require field theory somewhere in their description. The class of quantum experiments reproducible by either is much smaller than is commonly recognized and excludes many of the most iconic successes of quantum mechanics, including the quantitative account of Rayleigh scattering that explains the color of the sky. I respond to various arguments to the contrary in the recent literature.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
||||||
| Keywords: | quantum mechanics bohmian mechanics everett interpretation dynamical collapse measurement problem quantum field theory underdetermination | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism |
||||||
| Depositing User: | Professor David Wallace | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 03 May 2022 04:31 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 03 May 2022 04:31 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 20537 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Field Theory Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Realism/Anti-realism |
||||||
| Date: | May 2022 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20537 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}