Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-02T10:43:09.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The GRW Flash Theory: A Relativistic Quantum Ontology of Matter in Space-Time?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Michael Esfeld  and
Nicolas Gisin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

John Bell proposed an ontology for the GRW (Ghirardi, Rimini, and Weber) modification of quantum mechanics in terms of flashes occurring at space-time points. This article spells out the motivation for this ontology, inquires into the status of the wave function in it, critically examines the claim of its being Lorentz invariant, and considers whether it is a parsimonious but nevertheless physically adequate ontology.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 248 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

We are grateful to Jeff Barrett, Matthias Egg, Roderich Tumulka, Christian Wüthrich, and the participants of the summer school “Physics and Philosophy of Time” in Saig (Germany) in July 2013 for discussion and to three anonymous referees for Philosophy of Science for helpful comments.

References

Allori, Valia, Goldstein, Sheldon, Tumulka, Roderich, and Zanghì, Nino. 2008. “On the Common Structure of Bohmian Mechanics and the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber Theory.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 59:353–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arntzenius, Frank. 2012. Space, Time, and Stuff. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balashov, Yuri. 2010. Persistence and Spacetime. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bedingham, Daniel, Dürr, Detlef, Ghirardi, Gian Carlo, Goldstein, Sheldon, Tumulka, Roderich, and Zanghì, Nino. 2014. “Matter Density and Relativistic Models of Wave Function Collapse.” Journal of Statistical Physics 154 (1–2): 623–31. doi:10.1007/s10955-013-0814-9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, John S. 1964. “On the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Paradox.” Physics 1:195–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, John S. 1987. “Are There Quantum Jumps?” In Schrödinger: Centenary Celebration of a Plymath, ed. Kilmister, C. W., 41–52. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kilmister, C. W. 2004. Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Belot, Gordon. 2012. “Quantum States for Primitive Ontologists: A Case Study.” European Journal for Philosophy of Science 2:67–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohm, David. 1952. “A Suggested Interpretation of the Quantum Theory in Terms of ‘Hidden’ Variables.” Physical Review 85:166–93.Google Scholar
Callender, Craig. 2013. “Discussion: The Redundancy Argument against Bohm’s Theory.” Unpublished manuscript, Department of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego. http://philosophyfaculty.ucsd.edu/faculty/ccallender/publications.shtml.Google Scholar
Conway, John H., and Kochen, Simon. 2006. “The Free Will Theorem.” Foundations of Physics 36:1441–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, John H., and Kochen, Simon 2009. “The Strong Free Will Theorem.” Notices of the American Mathematical Society 56:226–32.Google Scholar
Dieks, Dennis. 2006. “Becoming, Relativity and Locality.” In The Ontology of Spacetime, ed. Dieks, Dennis, 157–76. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Dorato, Mauro, and Esfeld, Michael. 2010. “GRW as an Ontology of Dispositions.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 41:41–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dürr, Detlef, Goldstein, Sheldon, Norsen, Travis, Struyve, Ward, and Zanghì, Nino. 2013. “Can Bohmian Mechanics Be Made Relativistic?” Unpublished manuscript, arXiv.org. arXiv:1307.1714.Google Scholar
Dürr, Detlef, Goldstein, Sheldon, and Zanghì, Nino. 1992. “Quantum Equilibrium and the Origin of Absolute Uncertainty.” Journal of Statistical Physics 67:843–907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dürr, Detlef, Goldstein, Sheldon, and Zanghì, Nino. 2013. Quantum Physics without Quantum Philosophy. Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esfeld, Michael, Lazarovici, Dustin, Hubert, Mario, and Dürr, Detlef. 2013. “The Ontology of Bohmian Mechanics.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. doi:10.1093/bjps/axt019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, Kit. 2005. “Tense and Reality.” In Modality and Tense: Philosophical Papers, ed. Fine, Kit, 261–320. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, Gordon N. 1996. “Just How Radical Is Hyperplane Dependence?” In Perspectives on Quantum Reality, ed. Clifton, Robert K., 11–28. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frigg, Roman, and Hoefer, Carl. 2007. “Probability in GRW Theory.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38:371–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghirardi, Gian Carlo, Grassi, Renata, and Benatti, Fabio. 1995. “Describing the Macroscopic World: Closing the Circle within the Dynamical Reduction Program.” Foundations of Physics 25:5–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghirardi, Gian Carlo, Pearle, Philip, and Rimini, Alberto. 1990. “Markov Processes in Hilbert Space and Continuous Spontaneous Localization of Systems of Identical Particles.” Physical Review A 42:78–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ghirardi, Gian Carlo, Rimini, Alberto, and Weber, Tullio. 1986. “Unified Dynamics for Microscopic and Macroscopic Systems.” Physical Review D 34:470–91.Google ScholarPubMed
Gisin, Nicolas. 1984. “Quantum Measurements and Stochastic Processes.” Physical Review Letters 52:1657–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gisin, Nicolas 2010. “The Free Will Theorem, Stochastic Quantum Dynamics and True Becoming in Relativistic Quantum Physics.” Unpublished manuscript, arXiv.org. arXiv:1002.1392.Google Scholar
Gisin, Nicolas 2011. “Impossibility of Covariant Deterministic Nonlocal Hidden-Variable Extensions of Quantum Theory.” Physical Review A 83:020102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maudlin, Tim. 2007a. “Completeness, Supervenience, and Ontology.” Journal of Physics A 40:3151–71.Google Scholar
Maudlin, Tim 2007b. The Metaphysics within Physics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maudlin, Tim 2008. “Non-local Correlations in Quantum Theory: Some Ways the Trick Might Be Done.” In Einstein, Relativity, and Absolute Simultaneity, ed. Smith, Quentin and Craig, William L., 186–209. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Craig, William L. 2011. Quantum Non-locality and Relativity. 3rd ed. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Miller, Elizabeth. 2013. “Quantum Entanglement, Bohmian Mechanics, and Humean Supervenience.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy. doi:10.1080/00048402.2013.832786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monton, Bradley. 2004. “The Problem of Ontology for Spontaneous Collapse Theories.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35:407–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myrvold, Wayne C. 2002. “On Peaceful Coexistence: Is the Collapse Postulate Incompatible with Relativity?” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 33:435–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norsen, Travis. 2013. “The Pilot-Wave Perspective on Spin.” Unpublished manuscript, arXiv.org. arXiv:1305.1280.Google Scholar
Placek, Tomasz. 2013. “Causal Probabilities in GRW Quantum Mechanics.” In The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective, Vol. 5, ed. Maria Carla Galavotti. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Seevinck, Michiel P., and Uffink, Jos. 2011. “Not Throwing out the Baby with the Bathwater: Bell’s Condition of Local Causality Mathematically ‘Sharp and Clean.’” In Explanation, Prediction and Confirmation: New Trends and Old Ones Reconsidered, ed. Dieks, Dennis, Gonzalez, Wenceslao, Hartmann, Stephan, Uebel, Thomas, and Weber, Marcel, 425–50. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Sider, Theodore R. 2001. Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time. Oxford: Clarendon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suárez, Mauricio. 2007. “Quantum Propensities.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics B 38:418–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tumulka, Roderich. 2006. “A Relativistic Version of the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber Model.” Journal of Statistical Physics 125:825–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tumulka, Roderich 2007. “Comment on ‘The Free Will Theorem.’” Foundations of Physics 37:186–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tumulka, Roderich 2009. “The Point Processes of the GRW Theory of Wave Function Collapse.” Reviews in Mathematical Physics 21:155–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wüthrich, Christian. 2011. “Can the World Be Shown to Be Indeterministic after All?” In Probabilities in Physics, ed. Beisbart, Claus and Hartmann, Stephan, 365–89. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar