English

Why the wave function, of all things?

Quantum Physics 2014-11-06 v1 History and Philosophy of Physics

Abstract

There are reasons to doubt that making sense of the wave function (other than as a probability algorithm) will help with the project of making sense of quantum mechanics. The consistency of the quantum-mechanical correlation laws with the existence of their correlata is demonstrated. The demonstration makes use of the fact (which is implied by the indeterminacy principle) that physical space is not partitioned "all the way down," and it requires that the eigenvalue-eigenstate link be replaced by a different interpretive principle, whose implications are explored.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1411.1145,
  title  = {Why the wave function, of all things?},
  author = {Ulrich Mohrhoff},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1411.1145},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

12 pages, contribution to an online workshop on the meaning of the wave function, slightly revised

R2 v1 2026-06-22T06:48:31.572Z