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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jonte HanceORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
In discussion of the interpretation of quantum mechanics the terms ‘ontic’ and ‘epistemic’ are often used in the sense of pertaining to what exists, and pertaining to cognition or knowledge respectively. The terms are also often associated with the formal definitions given by Harrigan and Spekkens for the wavefunction in quantum mechanics to be �ψ-ontic or �ψ-epistemic in the context of the ontological models framework. The formal definitions are contradictories, so that the wavefunction can be either ψ�-epistemic or ψ �-ontic but not both. However, we argue, nothing about the informal ideas of epistemic and ontic interpretations rules out wavefunctions representing both reality and knowledge. The implications of the Pusey–Barrett–Rudolph theorem and many other issues may be rethought in the light of our analysis.
Author(s): Hance JR, Rarity J, Ladyman J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Quantum Studies: Mathematics and Foundations
Year: 2022
Volume: 9
Pages: 333-341
Print publication date: 01/08/2022
Online publication date: 27/04/2022
Acceptance date: 01/04/2022
Date deposited: 08/04/2024
ISSN (print): 2196-5609
ISSN (electronic): 2196-5617
Publisher: Birkhaeuser Science
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40509-022-00271-3
DOI: 10.1007/s40509-022-00271-3
Data Access Statement: Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.
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