Abstract
The incompatibility of Orthodox Quantum Mechanics with philosophical realism poses a serious challenge to scientists upholding such a philosophical doctrine. The desire to find a solution to this and other conceptual problems that quantum mechanics confronts has motivated many authors to propose alternative versions to Orthodox Quantum Mechanics. One of them is the Spontaneous Projection Approach, a theory grounded on philosophical realism. It has been introduced in previous papers and, with a few exceptions, it yields experimental predictions coincident with those of Orthodox Quantum Mechanics. One of these exceptions is analyzed in detail. The difference in predictions becomes apparent in a suggested experiment which could put both theories to the test.
Highlights
Introduction and OutlookRealism is a philosophical doctrine that revolves around two theses: the first is that the world exists by itself as opposed to being the product of human mind; the second is that it can be known gradually and approximately [1]
The incompatibility of Orthodox Quantum Mechanics with philosophical realism poses a serious challenge to scientists upholding such a philosophical doctrine
One of them is the Spontaneous Projection Approach, a theory grounded on philosophical realism
Summary
Realism is a philosophical doctrine that revolves around two theses: the first (or ontological thesis) is that the world exists by itself as opposed to being the product of human mind; the second (or epistemological thesis) is that it can be known gradually and approximately [1]. Two years later John von Neumann published Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik [5] These first versions of quantum theory share two characteristics: 1) the state vector ψ (wave function ψ ) describes the state of an individual system, and 2) they involve two laws of change of the state of the system: spontaneous (natural) processes, governed by the Schrödinger equation; and measurement processes, ruled by the projection postulate. Taking philosophical realism as a starting point, a Spontaneous Projection Approach (SPA) to quantum theory was formulated some years ago [11] This approach was recently modified to account for quantum processes in the general case, including those where the Hamiltonian depends explicitly on time [12]. If a measurement of yields a result between α1 and α2 , the state of the system immediately after the measurement is an ( ) eigenfunction of α2 − α1
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