Contexts, Systems and Modalities: A New Ontology for Quantum Mechanics

Foundations of Physics 46 (2):121-137 (2016)
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Abstract

In this article we present a possible way to make usual quantum mechanics fully compatible with physical realism, defined as the statement that the goal of physics is to study entities of the natural world, existing independently from any particular observer’s perception, and obeying universal and intelligible rules. Rather than elaborating on the quantum formalism itself, we propose a new quantum ontology, where physical properties are attributed jointly to the system, and to the context in which it is embedded. In combination with a quantization principle, this non-classical definition of physical reality sheds new light on counter-intuitive features of quantum mechanics such as the origin of probabilities, non-locality, and the quantum-classical boundary

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References found in this work

The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory: Transl. Into Engl. By Carl Eckart and Frank C. Hoyt.Werner Heisenberg - 1930 - Chicago: Ill., The University of Chicago Press. Edited by Carl Eckart & Frank Clark Hoyt.
Do we really understand quantum mechanics?Franck Laloë - 2012 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Quantum probability theory.Miklós Rédei & Stephen Jeffrey Summers - 2007 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38 (2):390-417.
On Zurek’s Derivation of the Born Rule.Maximilian Schlosshauer & Arthur Fine - 2005 - Foundations of Physics 35 (2):197-213.

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