On interpretations of quantum mechanics

SUN Chang-Pu

doi:10.7693/wl20170801

PHYSICS > 2017 > 46(8): 481-498. > DOI: 10.7693/wl20170801

SUN Chang-Pu. On interpretations of quantum mechanics[J]. PHYSICS, 2017, 46(8): 481-498. DOI: 10.7693/wl20170801

Citation:

SUN Chang-Pu. On interpretations of quantum mechanics[J]. PHYSICS, 2017, 46(8): 481-498. DOI: 10.7693/wl20170801

Citation:

SUN Chang-Pu. On interpretations of quantum mechanics[J]. PHYSICS, 2017, 46(8): 481-498. DOI: 10.7693/wl20170801

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On interpretations of quantum mechanics

SUN Chang-Pu^1,2,†

(1 Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics,Beijing 100193,China)
(2 Quantum Physics and Quantum Information Division,Computational Science Research Center,Beijing 100193,China)

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Received Date: July 13, 2017
Published Date: August 11, 2017

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The establishment of quantum mechanics not only laid the foundation of contemporary science, but also has achieved amazing successes in the promotion of contemporary technological revolution. However, for the interpretation of quantum mechanics—understanding how wave functions describe the microscopic world, there is no consensus so far. This dilemma faced by quantum mechanics not only leads to some misinterpretation in epistemology, but also there are many problems with quantum technology based on the controversial Copenhagen interpretation.
The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics appears also in the dilemma structure:the microscopic world is described by quantum mechanics, which is unitary, but its observation or measurement depends on the classical world outside the quantum system (instrument, observer,environment), and the wave packet collapse implied is non-unitary. To this end, some well-known scholars, including Einstein, Schrödinger and Weinberg, made sharp criticisms on the Copenhagen interpretation. As 80 years have passed, in order to overcome dualism predicament in the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, people put forward a variety of interpretations for quantum mechanics, including many world interpretation, quantum decoherence interpretation, consistent history, quantum Darwinism, etc. This review will briefly introduce and comment on the basic ideas of these quantum mechanics interpretations, the logical relationship between them and the possibility of their experimental tests. By further clarifying the basic concepts in the interpretation of quantum mechanics, we hope to avoid the epistemological problems caused by the abuse of the quantum conception and quantum technology development going astray.

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