Butterfield, Jeremy (2013) Assessing the Montevideo Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics. ISSN 1355-2198
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PDF (This is a philosophical assessment of the Montevideo interpretation of quantum theory, advocated by Gambini, Pullin and co-authors.)
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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”.
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Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | ||||||
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Keywords: | Montevideo interpretation; quantum clocks; decoherence; Everett interpretation | ||||||
Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Gravity Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics |
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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 |
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Date: | September 2013 | ||||||
ISSN: | 1355-2198 | ||||||
URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10761 |
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