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On Closing the Circle

Lewis, Peter J. (2019) On Closing the Circle. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Ghirardi sought to “close the circle”—to find a place for human experience of measurement outcomes within quantum mechanics. I argue that Ghirardi’s spontaneous collapse approach succeeds at this task, and in fact does so even without the postulation of a particular account of “primitive ontology”, such as a mass density distribution or a discrete “flashes”. Nevertheless, I suggest that there is a remaining ontological problem facing spontaneous collapse theories concerning the use of classical concepts like “particle” in quantum mechanical explanation at the micro-level. Neither the mass density nor the flash ontology is any help with this problem.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
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Lewis, Peter J.
Keywords: GRW, spontaneous collapse, primitive ontology
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Depositing User: Peter J. Lewis
Date Deposited: 13 Mar 2020 16:34
Last Modified: 13 Mar 2020 16:34
Item ID: 16999
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Date: 24 October 2019
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16999

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