Related papers: The roads not taken: empty waves, wavefunction col…
My view on the meaning of the quantum wave function and its connection to protective measurements is described. The wave function and only the wave function is the ontology of the quantum theory. Protective measurements support this view…
When a quantum object -- a particle as we call it in a non-rigorous way -- is described by a multi-branched wave- function, with the corresponding wave-packets occupying separated regions of the time-space, a frequently asked question is…
We assume that particles are point-like objects even when not observed. We report on the consequences of our assumption within the realm of quantum theory. An important consequence is the necessity of vacuum fields to account for particle…
It has been debated whether protective measurement implies the reality of the wave function. In this paper, I present a new analysis of the relationship between protective measurements and the reality of the wave function. First, I briefly…
Several situations, in which an empty wave causes an observable effect, are reviewed. They include an experiment showing ``surrealistic trajectories'' proposed by Englert et al. and protective measurement of the density of the quantum…
We investigate the meaning of the wave function by analyzing the mass and charge density distributions of a quantum system. According to protective measurement, a charged quantum system has mass and charge density distributing in space,…
The meaning of the wave function has been a hot topic of debate since the early days of quantum mechanics. Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in this long-standing question. Is the wave function ontic, directly representing a…
The ontological status of the quantum wavefunction remains one of the most debated questions in quantum theory. While epistemic interpretations regard the wavefunction as a reflection of our knowledge or beliefs, ontic interpretations treat…
Quantum measurement problem is still unconsensus since it has existed many years and inspired a large of literature in physics and philosophy. We show it can be subsumed into the quantum theory if we extend the Feynman path integral by…
We investigate the meaning of the wave function by analyzing the mass and charge density distribution of a quantum system. According to protective measurement, a charged quantum system has mass and charge density proportional to the modulus…
The relation between the restricted path integral approach to quantum measurement theory and the commonly accepted von Neumann wavefunction collapse postulate is presented. It is argued that in the limit of impulsive measurements the two…
A physical theory without interpretation is mathematics. Since there are no paradoxes in science, only incorrect interpretations of phenomena or inadequate theories, it is necessary to use a consistent interpretation of quantum mechanics…
Quantum mechanics is an outstandingly successful description of nature, underpinning fields from biology through chemistry to physics. At its heart is the quantum wavefunction, the central tool for describing quantum systems. Yet it is…
It is shown that from the expectation values of obervables, which can be measured for a single system using protective measurements, the linear structure, inner product, and observables in the Hilbert space can be reconstructed. A universal…
The problem of measurement in quantum mechanics is that the quantum particle in the course of evolution, as described by the linear Schrodinger equation, exists in all of its possible states, but in measuring, the particle is always…
We examine the entanglement and state disturbance arising in a protective measurement and argue that these inescapable effects doom the claim that protective measurement establishes the reality of the wave function. An additional challenge…
In quantum mechanics, a long-standing question remains: How does a single photon traverse double slits? One intuitive picture suggests that the photon passes through only one slit, while its wavefunction splits into an ``empty" wave and a…
Although quantum mechanics is one of our most successful physical theories, there has been a long-standing debate about the interpretation of the wave function---the central object of the theory. Two prominent views are that (i) it…
Any realist interpretation of quantum theory must grapple with the measurement problem and the status of state-vector collapse. In a no-collapse approach, measurement is typically modeled as a dynamical process involving decoherence. We…
We present a self-contained formulation of spin-free nonrelativistic quantum mechanics that makes no use of wavefunctions or complex amplitudes of any kind. Quantum states are represented as ensembles of real-valued quantum trajectories,…