Lombardi, Olimpia and Fortin, Sebastian and Lopez, Cristian (2015) Measurement, Interpretation and Information. Entropy. ISSN 1099-4300

Text Measurement, interpretation and information - published version 07310.pdf Download (771kB)

Abstract

During many years since the birth of quantum mechanics, instrumentalist
interpretations prevailed: the meaning of the theory was expressed in terms of measurements results. However, in the last decades, several attempts to interpret it from a realist viewpoint have been proposed. Among them, modal interpretations supply a realist non-collapse account, according to which the system always has definite properties and the quantum state represents possibilities, not actualities. But the traditional modal interpretations faced some conceptual problems when addressing imperfect measurements. The modal Hamiltonian interpretation, on the contrary, proved to be able to supply an adequate account of the measurement problem, both in its ideal and its non-ideal versions. Moreover, in the non-ideal case, it gives a precise criterion to distinguish between reliable and non-reliable measurements. Nevertheless, that criterion depends on the particular state of the measured system, and this might be considered as a shortcoming of the proposal. In fact, one could ask for a criterion of reliability that does not depend on the features of what is measured but only on the properties of the measurement device. The aim of this article is precisely to supply such a criterion: we will adopt an informational perspective for this purpose.

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Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Lombardi, Olimpia olimpiafilo@arnet.com.ar Fortin, Sebastian sfortin@conicet.gov.ar Lopez, Cristian cristian.lopez@unil.ch 0000-0002-2883-4037
Keywords:	quantum mechanics; modal-Hamiltonian interpretation; non-ideal measurements; information
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Computation/Information Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Depositing User:	Dr. Cristian Lopez
Date Deposited:	09 Jan 2025 13:33
Last Modified:	09 Jan 2025 13:33
Item ID:	24500
Journal or Publication Title:	Entropy
Official URL:	https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/17/11/7310
DOI or Unique Handle:	10.3390/e17117310
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Computation/Information Specific Sciences > Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Date:	15 October 2015
ISSN:	1099-4300
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24500

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