Quantum Fact and Fiction III

Abstract

Part III of this series [A. Landé, Amer. J. Phys. 33, 123 (1965), and 34, 160 (1966), quoted as Parts I and II] continues the critique of the customary interpretation of quantum mechanics. It is directed against the idea that electrons, in opposition to the Born statistical particle interpretation of the wave function, are “wavicles.” Serious conceptual and elementary mathematical defects in Bohr's famous “Discussion with Einstein” are pointed out. The doctrine that position q and momentum p of a particle are blurred over an uncertainty range because both allegedly cannot be measured simultaneously, that q and p do not exist simultaneously, is due to a confusion of analogy with identity of qualities. In its second part, the paper offers a nonquantal derivation of the probability interference law as a necessity under the postulate that the general interdependence between probabilities is to become the ordinary probability addition law in the average. The wave picture of matter violates the postulate of relativity.