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Ruth Kastner replied to the topic Possibilist Transactional Interpretation in the forum Retrocausal theories 8 years, 9 months ago
Thanks Mark,
I don’t know either. Hey out there, please tell us what you don’t like about PTI.
But please let your critique be based on an open-minded reading of the published literature, unlike some critiques out there 🙂 -
Quantum Speculations replied to the topic A New Ontological Interpretation of the Wave Function in the forum Meaning of the wave function 8 years, 9 months ago
Hi Peter, thanks a lot for your very helpful comments. Your questions are closely related to the understanding of RDM (random discontinuous motion) of particles. RDM gives an ontological interpretation of the wave function, but the instantaneous picture cannot explain interference and measurement. To explain the former, we still need the law of…[Read more]
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Ruth Kastner replied to the topic What are the most pressing problems? and how to solve them? in the forum Panel Discussion 8 years, 9 months ago
It is not necessary for quantum mechanics to be local to provide consistency with relativity.
If QM is taken as describing a pre-spacetime domain from which spacetime emerges, there is no conflict.
I provide such an account in PTI (e.g. http://www.cambridge.org/9780521764155) -
Ruth Kastner replied to the topic Retrocausal Bohm Model in the forum Retrocausal theories 8 years, 9 months ago
Thanks Rod,
I certainly would not dismiss a model simply because it implied a block universe. I have had extensive discussions with the Relational Block World folks (Mark and Michael), and while that’s not my favored approach, it’s not because it’s a block world.
My concern about the model you’re proposing is that while it describes dynamical…[Read more]
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Ruth Kastner replied to the topic Retrocausal Bohm Model in the forum Retrocausal theories 8 years, 9 months ago
Hi Rod,
Have you thought any more about the block universe question? It seems to me that with the initial and final BC, all spacetime events are ‘set’ and therefore we must have a block world here. I’d be curious to know whether you agree.
Thanks,
Ruth -
Ruth Kastner replied to the topic Possibilist Transactional Interpretation in the forum Retrocausal theories 8 years, 9 months ago
I would agree with that. In PTI what we call ‘particles’ are just actualized transactions bringing about the observed spacetime events.
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Ruth Kastner replied to the topic Possibilist Transactional Interpretation in the forum Retrocausal theories 8 years, 9 months ago
Thanks Alan, this raises the issue of interpretation of the wf. It’s a vexed issue because most people presuppose that ‘real’ = ‘spacetime object’ but in general the wf is not compatible with spacetime existence. For those who accept that definition of real (whether tacitly or explicitly), this leads to antirealism about the wf on the one hand,…[Read more]
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Ruth Kastner replied to the topic Possibilist Transactional Interpretation in the forum Retrocausal theories 8 years, 9 months ago
Hi and sorry for the late reply.
The answer is that ‘real’ is not equivalent to ‘existing in spacetime’.
I take quantum states as referring to real objects that exist as a quantum substratum, outside spacetime, and that spacetime events are emergent from that real substratum–as Miroljub notes.
So the idea is that we need to expand our notion of…[Read more] -
Quantum Speculations started the topic Wavefunction collapse, nonlocality and preferred Lorentz frame in the forum Collapse theories 8 years, 10 months ago
In this paper, we first give a new proof of nonlocality in standard quantum mechanics based on the possibility of superluminal signaling. Next, we argue that the new proof may also imply that quantum nonlocality requires the existence of a preferred Lorentz frame. Thirdly, we give a few arguments for the detectability of the frame, and illustrate…[Read more]
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Quantum Speculations started the topic Notes on the ontology of Bohmian mechanics in the forum Bohm's theory 8 years, 10 months ago
It is argued that in Bohmian mechanics the effective wave function of a subsystem of the universe does not encode the influences of other particles on the subsystem. This suggests that the ontology of Bohmian mechanics does not consist only in Bohmian particles and their positions. It is nonetheless pointed out that since the wave function in…[Read more]
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Quantum Speculations started the topic A New Ontological Interpretation of the Wave Function in the forum Meaning of the wave function 8 years, 10 months ago
In this paper, we propose a new ontological interpretation of the wave function in terms of random discontinuous motion of particles. According to this interpretation, the wave function of an N-body quantum system describes the state of random discontinuous motion of N particles, and in particular, the modulus squared of the wave function gives…[Read more]
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Quantum Speculations started the topic in the forum 8 years, 10 months ago
The quantization of a theory with an infinite number of degrees of freedom, such as a field theory, leads to unitarily inequivalent representations of the canonical commutation relations. The occurrence of inequivalent representations is widely acknowledged as a grave obstacle for interpreting QFT ontologically. One possible stance is to dismiss…[Read more]
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Quantum Speculations started the topic A Conjecture on the Origin of Gravity in the forum Foundations of quantum gravity 8 years, 10 months ago
In this paper, we argue that a certain kind of discreteness of space-time may imply the existence of gravity as a geometric property of space-time described by general relativity (GR). In particular, the dynamical relationship between matter and space-time holds true not only for macroscopic objects, but also for microscopic particles. This…[Read more]
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Ruth Kastner started the topic Possibilist Transactional Interpretation in the forum Retrocausal theories 8 years, 10 months ago
Thanks to Ken Wharton for running this workshop.
As many of you know, I’ve been working on an extension of Cramer’s Transactional Interpretation with a possibilist ontology. I’ve argued that this solves the measurement problem and provides a unified account of nonrelativistic and relativistic quantum theory. It also offers promise for a theory of…[Read more] -
Ruth Kastner replied to the topic What are the most pressing problems? and how to solve them? in the forum Panel Discussion 9 years ago
In TI the quantum state is ontic, but quantum states describe offer waves of specific micro-degrees of freedom excited states of the underlying field. Since collapse occurs when an offer wave is absorbed–at the micro-level–there is no universal quantum state. A quantum state is not the correct description of the spacetime universe, since it is…[Read more]
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Ruth Kastner replied to the topic What are the most pressing problems? and how to solve them? in the forum Panel Discussion 9 years ago
Thanks Dieter for your question. My development of TI (as PTI) is based on the Davies theory, a direct-action version of QED:
Davies, P. C. W. (1970). “A quantum theory of Wheeler-Feynman Electrodynamics,” Proc. Cam. Phil. Soc. 68, 751.
Davies, P. C. W. (1971).”Extension of Wheeler-Feynman Quantum Theory to the Relativistic Domain I. Scatt…[Read more] -
Ruth Kastner replied to the topic What are the most pressing problems? and how to solve them? in the forum Panel Discussion 9 years ago
With all due respect to Carlo (whose work on emergence I find very interesting): as I have noted in reply to Mark’s post under the upcoming workshop, it is certainly not necessarily a “mistake” to take the quantum state as ontic just because people have not succeeded in solving the measurement problem with the usual approaches to QM. I do hope we…[Read more]
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