How to Be a Relativistic Spacetime State Realist.

According to spacetime state realism (SSR), the fundamental ontology of a quantum mechanical world consists of a state-valued field evolving in four-dimensional spacetime. One chief advantage it claims over rival wave-function realist views is its natural compatibility with relativistic quantum fiel...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Vol. 71; no. 3; pp. 933 - 958
Autor principal: Swanson, Noel
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: University of Chicago Press Sep2020
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:According to spacetime state realism (SSR), the fundamental ontology of a quantum mechanical world consists of a state-valued field evolving in four-dimensional spacetime. One chief advantage it claims over rival wave-function realist views is its natural compatibility with relativistic quantum field theory (QFT). I argue that the original density operator formulation of SSR cannot be extended to QFTs where the local observables form type III von Neumann algebras. Instead, I propose a new formulation of SSR in terms of a presheaf of local state spaces dual to the net of local observables studied by algebraic QFT. 1 Introduction 2 Spacetime State Realism in Quantum Field Theory 2.1 Equivalence thesis 3 Entanglement and the Type III Property 3.1 No-Go Lemma 1 3.2 No-Go Lemma 2 4 State Space Axioms for Quantum Field Theory 4.1 Revised equivalence thesis 5 Discussion