Quantum mechanics has irked physicists ever since its conception more than
100 years ago. While some of the misgivings, such as it being unintuitive, are
merely aesthetic, quantum mechanics has one serious shortcoming: it lacks a
physical description of the measurement process. This "measurement problem"
indicates that quantum mechanics is at least an incomplete theory -- good as
far as it goes, but missing a piece -- or, more radically, is in need of
complete overhaul.
Here we describe an approach which may provide this sought-for completion or
replacement: Superdeterminism. A superdeterministic theory is one which
violates the assumption of Statistical Independence (that distributions of
hidden variables are independent of measurement settings). Intuition suggests
that Statistical Independence is an essential ingredient of any theory of
science (never mind physics), and for this reason Superdeterminism is typically
discarded swiftly in any discussion of quantum foundations.
The purpose of this paper is to explain why the existing objections to
Superdeterminism are based on experience with classical physics and linear
systems, but that this experience misleads us. Superdeterminism is a promising
approach not only to solve the measurement problem, but also to understand the
apparent nonlocality of quantum physics. Most importantly, we will discuss how
it may be possible to test this hypothesis in an (almost) model independent
way.
%0 Generic
%1 hossenfelder2019rethinking
%A Hossenfelder, S.
%A Palmer, T. N.
%D 2019
%K quantum
%T Rethinking Superdeterminism
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1912.06462
%X Quantum mechanics has irked physicists ever since its conception more than
100 years ago. While some of the misgivings, such as it being unintuitive, are
merely aesthetic, quantum mechanics has one serious shortcoming: it lacks a
physical description of the measurement process. This "measurement problem"
indicates that quantum mechanics is at least an incomplete theory -- good as
far as it goes, but missing a piece -- or, more radically, is in need of
complete overhaul.
Here we describe an approach which may provide this sought-for completion or
replacement: Superdeterminism. A superdeterministic theory is one which
violates the assumption of Statistical Independence (that distributions of
hidden variables are independent of measurement settings). Intuition suggests
that Statistical Independence is an essential ingredient of any theory of
science (never mind physics), and for this reason Superdeterminism is typically
discarded swiftly in any discussion of quantum foundations.
The purpose of this paper is to explain why the existing objections to
Superdeterminism are based on experience with classical physics and linear
systems, but that this experience misleads us. Superdeterminism is a promising
approach not only to solve the measurement problem, but also to understand the
apparent nonlocality of quantum physics. Most importantly, we will discuss how
it may be possible to test this hypothesis in an (almost) model independent
way.
@misc{hossenfelder2019rethinking,
abstract = {Quantum mechanics has irked physicists ever since its conception more than
100 years ago. While some of the misgivings, such as it being unintuitive, are
merely aesthetic, quantum mechanics has one serious shortcoming: it lacks a
physical description of the measurement process. This "measurement problem"
indicates that quantum mechanics is at least an incomplete theory -- good as
far as it goes, but missing a piece -- or, more radically, is in need of
complete overhaul.
Here we describe an approach which may provide this sought-for completion or
replacement: Superdeterminism. A superdeterministic theory is one which
violates the assumption of Statistical Independence (that distributions of
hidden variables are independent of measurement settings). Intuition suggests
that Statistical Independence is an essential ingredient of any theory of
science (never mind physics), and for this reason Superdeterminism is typically
discarded swiftly in any discussion of quantum foundations.
The purpose of this paper is to explain why the existing objections to
Superdeterminism are based on experience with classical physics and linear
systems, but that this experience misleads us. Superdeterminism is a promising
approach not only to solve the measurement problem, but also to understand the
apparent nonlocality of quantum physics. Most importantly, we will discuss how
it may be possible to test this hypothesis in an (almost) model independent
way.},
added-at = {2019-12-16T14:36:39.000+0100},
author = {Hossenfelder, S. and Palmer, T. N.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2c7286f58cd704d67c12cdb7d2d3ae729/cmcneile},
description = {Rethinking Superdeterminism},
interhash = {64a574c0acc738b6b7c5f247111ccd99},
intrahash = {c7286f58cd704d67c12cdb7d2d3ae729},
keywords = {quantum},
note = {cite arxiv:1912.06462Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures},
timestamp = {2019-12-16T14:36:39.000+0100},
title = {Rethinking Superdeterminism},
url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1912.06462},
year = 2019
}