Why Be Regular? Part II
Abstract
We provide a novel perspective on "regularity" as a property of representations of the Weyl algebra. In Part I, we critiqued a proposal by Halvorson [2004, "Complementarity of representations in quantum mechanics", Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35(1), pp. 45--56], who advocates for the use of the non-regular "position" and "momentum" representations of the Weyl algebra. Halvorson argues that the existence of these non-regular representations demonstrates that a quantum mechanical particle can have definite values for position or momentum, contrary to a widespread view. In this sequel, we propose a justification for focusing on regular representations, pace Halvorson, by drawing on algebraic methods.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1805.05567,
title = {Why Be Regular? Part II},
author = {Benjamin Feintzeig and James Owen Weatherall},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.05567},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
35 pages, Part II of a series