PMID: 22587234May 17, 2012Paper

Is a system's wave function in one-to-one correspondence with its elements of reality?

Physical Review Letters
Roger Colbeck, Renato Renner

Abstract

Although quantum mechanics is one of our most successful physical theories, there has been a long-standing debate about the interpretation of the wave function--the central object of the theory. Two prominent views are that (i) it corresponds to an element of reality, i.e., an objective attribute that exists before measurement, and (ii) it is a subjective state of knowledge about some underlying reality. A recent result [M. F. Pusey, J. Barrett, and T. Rudolph, arXiv:1111.3328] has placed the subjective interpretation into doubt, showing that it would contradict certain physically plausible assumptions, in particular, that multiple systems can be prepared such that their elements of reality are uncorrelated. Here we show, based only on the assumption that measurement settings can be chosen freely, that a system's wave function is in one-to-one correspondence with its elements of reality. This also eliminates the possibility that it can be interpreted subjectively.

References

Aug 4, 2011·Nature Communications·Roger Colbeck, Renato Renner

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Citations

Dec 9, 2016·Nature·Antonio Acín, Lluis Masanes
Mar 22, 2013·Physical Review Letters·M S Leifer, O J E Maroney
Jul 12, 2017·Proceedings. Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences·Matthew S Leifer, Matthew F Pusey
Mar 4, 2014·Physical Review Letters·Charles Bamber, Jeff S Lundeen
Jul 12, 2014·Physical Review Letters·Jonathan BarrettOwen J E Maroney
Jun 2, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Yakir AharonovJeff Tollaksen
Nov 9, 2019·Physical Review Letters·Wei-Wei PanGuang-Can Guo
Feb 28, 2015·Physical Review Letters·Radu IonicioiuDaniel R Terno
Dec 24, 2018·Physical Review Letters·Shane Mansfield, Elham Kashefi
Sep 20, 2018·Nature Communications·Daniela Frauchiger, Renato Renner
Oct 30, 2012·Physical Review Letters·Peter G LewisTerry Rudolph
May 18, 2013·Physical Review Letters·GianCarlo Ghirardi, Raffaele Romano
Mar 4, 2014·Physical Review Letters·Maximilian Schlosshauer, Arthur Fine
Sep 26, 2012·Physical Review Letters·Alberto Montina

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