SMuK 2023 – scientific programme

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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 6: Quantum Foundations 3

AGPhil 6.1: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 22, 2023, 16:00–16:45, JAN/0027

The structure of entangled properties: Distributional holism — •Paul Näger — University of Münster, Germany

Which options does a wave function realist (GRW, Everett or other) have to understand entangled quantum states as referring to properties? Since entangled states cannot be reduced to the micro states, the denoted properties must be ontologically irreducible in some sense. There are three major proposals: Either an entangled state refers to an irreducible property of the macro object (as proposed by wave function monists), e.g. “having total spin 0”; or it refers to an irreducible relation between the micro objects (as proposed by some ontic structural realists), e.g. “having opposite spin to”; or, less well-known, it denotes a plural property of the micro objects, e.g. “having total spin 0” understood as a collective property of the micro objects. I argue that all three established proposals fail to properly fit with the structure of more general entangled states and develop a new proposal: An entangled state denotes what I call a “distributional property”, establishing a specific kind of holism with a characteristic structure.