European Journal for Philosophy of Science 5 (3):387-397 (2015)
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Abstract |
Primitive ontology is a recently much discussed approach to the ontology of quantum theory according to which the theory is ultimately about entities in 3-dimensional space and their temporal evolution. This paper critically discusses the primitive ontologies that have been suggested within the Bohmian approach to quantum field theory in the light of the existence of unitarily inequivalent representations. These primitive ontologies rely either on a Fock space representation or a wave functional representation, which are strictly speaking unambiguously available only for free systems in flat spacetime. As a consequence, it is argued that they do not constitute fundamental ontologies for quantum field theory, in contrast to the case of the Bohmian approach to quantum mechanics
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Keywords | Primitive ontology Local beables Bohmian mechanics Quantum field theory Fock space Particles Fields Unitarily inequivalent representations |
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DOI | 10.1007/s13194-015-0113-1 |
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References found in this work BETA
Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics: Collected Papers on Quantum Philosophy.John Stewart Bell - 2004 - Cambridge University Press.
Quantum States for Primitive Ontologists: A Case Study.Gordon Belot - 2012 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 2 (1):67-83.
On the Common Structure of Bohmian Mechanics and the Ghirardi–Rimini–Weber Theory Dedicated to GianCarlo Ghirardi on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday.Valia Allori, Sheldon Goldstein, Roderich Tumulka & Nino Zanghì - 2008 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59 (3):353 - 389.
The Fate of 'Particles' in Quantum Field Theories with Interactions.Doreen Fraser - 2008 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39 (4):841-859.
Against Field Interpretations of Quantum Field Theory.David John Baker - 2009 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60 (3):585-609.
View all 13 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Particles, Cutoffs and Inequivalent Representations: Fraser and Wallace on Quantum Field Theory.Matthias Egg, Vincent Lam & Andrea Oldofredi - 2017 - Foundations of Physics 47 (3):453-466.
Particle Creation and Annihilation: Two Bohmian Approaches.Andrea Oldofredi - 2018 - Lato Sensu, Revue de la Société de Philosophie des Sciences 5 (1):77-85.
Lorentz-Invariant, Retrocausal, and Deterministic Hidden Variables.Aurélien Drezet - 2019 - Foundations of Physics 49 (10):1166-1199.
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