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On Some Consequences of the Breakdown of Counterfactual Definiteness in the Quantum World
Author(s) -
De Baere W.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
fortschritte der physik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.469
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1521-3978
pISSN - 0015-8208
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1521-3978(199811)46:6/8<843::aid-prop843>3.0.co;2-1
Subject(s) - counterfactual thinking , definiteness , property (philosophy) , locality , principle of locality , epistemology , theoretical physics , mathematics , quantum , mathematical economics , quantum nonlocality , quantum mechanics , physics , philosophy , linguistics , quantum entanglement
The crucial role of counterfactual reasoning in generating inconsistencies between local subquantum theories and quantum mechanics is stressed. It is argued that the physical justification of such reasoning requires the fulfilment of a criterion of actualizability of hypothetical situations. It is demonstrated that in a subquantum framework this criterion is equivalent to the assumption of actual reproducibility of individual subquantum states. Therefore, inconsistencies between local subquantum theories and quantum mechanics disappear if a nonreproducibility property of nature, in full agreement with the empirical fact that past, present and future are basically distinct, is invoked. The proposal also leaves the universal validity of the locality principle untouched, in agreement with all existing empirical evidence.