English

Ontology in quantum mechanics

Quantum Physics 2021-07-30 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

It is suspected that the quantum evolution equations describing the micro-world as we know it are of a special kind that allows transformations to a special set of basis states in Hilbert space, such that, in this basis, the evolution is given by elements of the permutation group. This would restore an ontological interpretation. It is shown how, at low energies per particle degree of freedom, almost any quantum system allows for such a transformation. This contradicts Bell's theorem, and we emphasise why some of the assumptions made by Bell to prove his theorem cannot hold for the models studied here. We speculate how an approach of this kind may become helpful in isolating the most likely version of the Standard Model, combined with General Relativity. A link is suggested with black hole physics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2107.14191,
  title  = {Ontology in quantum mechanics},
  author = {Gerard t Hooft},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.14191},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

21 pages, 3 figures, Invited contribution as Chapter in Intech Open Book: Topics on Quantum Information Science

R2 v1 2026-06-24T04:39:42.622Z