Owen Maroney (Oxford): How epistemic can a quantum state be?

Speaker: Owen Maroney (Oxford)

Time: 5:15pm – 6:45pm

Title: How epistemic can a quantum state be?

Abstract:

The “psi-epistemic” view is that the quantum state does not represent a state of the world; but a state of knowledge about the world. It draws its motivation; in part; from the observation of qualitative similarities between characteristic properties of non-orthogonal quantum wave functions and between overlapping classical probability distributions.

It might be suggested that this gives a natural explanation for these properties; which seem puzzling for the alternative “psi-ontic” view. However; looking at the two such similarities; quantum state overlap and quantum state discrimination; it will be shown that the psi-epistemic view cannot account for these values shown by quantum theory; and must instead rely on the same kind of explanations as the “psi-ontic” view.