English

The Relational Interpretation of Quantum Physics

Quantum Physics 2021-10-04 v3 History and Philosophy of Physics

Abstract

The relational interpretation (or RQM, for Relational Quantum Mechanics) solves the measurement problem by considering an ontology of sparse relative events, or "facts". Facts are realized in interactions between any two physical systems and are relative to these systems. RQM's technical core is the realisation that quantum transition amplitudes determine physical probabilities only when their arguments are facts relative to the same system. The relativity of facts can be neglected in the approximation where decoherence hides interference, thus making facts approximately stable.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2109.09170,
  title  = {The Relational Interpretation of Quantum Physics},
  author = {Carlo Rovelli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.09170},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

To appear in the "Oxford Handbook of the History of Interpretation of Quantum Physics". arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1712.02894

R2 v1 2026-06-24T06:06:59.340Z