Hi all,
today we have Patrick Dürr visiting from Oxford. See below for his
title and abstract.
Best,
-joe
Title: \Psi Wars - A New Hope
Abstract: Vis-à-vis the hassle in the foundations of quantum mechanics
(QM), i.e. its statistical character, the measurement problem, quantum
entanglement and their joint culmination in the EPR-thought
experiment, the question arises whether QM is complete: Does every
element of reality possess a counterpart in the theory? Proponents of
Bohmian Mechanics (BM) contest this. They attempt to complete QM by
augmenting the standard formalism: BM posits particles that always
occupy definite positions and a dynamical law for the particle
trajectories. BM claims to resolve some of the quantum conundrums.
The first part of my talk highlights two core problems of BM: its
non-locality, which severely impedes the formulation of relativistic
variants of BM, and various conceptual problems involcing BM’s
dynamics, first and foremost its redundancy, respectively. I'll argue
that by jettisoning the assumption that particles follow continuous
trajectories, one arrives at a superior Bohmian theory, “stochastic
BM” (sBM). It retains all of orthodox BM’s virtues, but eschews its
shortcomings. sBM is a many-worlds theory, according to which the
universe is performing a random walk through configuration space, with
the worlds (Everettian branches) popping into existence sequentially
(rather than existing simultaneously, as in the Everett
interpretation).
The second part of the talk elaborates how sBM steers an attractive
middle path between wavefunction realists (such as advocates of the
Everett interpretation) and primitive ontologists (such as advocates
of BM or GRW).