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Assessing the Montevideo Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

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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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
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Butterfield, Jeremyjb56
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

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