Collapse theories as beable theories

Guido Bacciagaluppi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

Abstract

I discuss the interpretation of spontaneous collapse theories, with particular reference to Bell's suggestion that the stochastic jumps in the evolution of the wave function should be considered as local beables of the theory. I develop this analogy in some detail for the case of non-relativistic GRW-type theories, using a generalisation of Bell's notion of beables to POV measures. In the context of CSL-type theories, this strategy appears to fail, and I discuss instead Ghirardi and co-workers' mass-density interpretation and its relation to Schroedinger's original charge-density interpretation. This discussion is extended to relativistic CSL-type theories. A few remarks on Everett's interpretation conclude the paper.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)19-54
Number of pages36
JournalManuscrito
Volume33
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2010

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