{
  "id": "1310.4534",
  "version": "v2",
  "published": "2013-10-16T22:16:56.000Z",
  "updated": "2017-10-25T14:26:16.000Z",
  "title": "Causality and the Modeling of the Measurement Process in Quantum Theory",
  "authors": [
    "Christian de Ronde"
  ],
  "categories": [
    "quant-ph",
    "physics.hist-ph"
  ],
  "abstract": "In this paper we provide a general account of the causal models which attempt to provide a solution to the famous measurement problem of Quantum Mechanics (QM). We will argue that --leaving aside instrumentalism which restricts the physical meaning of QM to the algorithmic prediction of measurement outcomes-- the many interpretations which can be found in the literature can be distinguished through the way they model the measurement process, either in terms of the efficient cause or in terms of the final cause. We will discuss and analyze why both, 'final cause' and 'efficient cause' models, face severe difficulties to solve the measurement problem. In contradistinction to these schemes we will present a new model based on the immanent cause which, we will argue, provides an intuitive understanding of the measurement process in QM.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2013-10-16T22:16:56.000Z",
      "title": "Quantum Superpositions and Causality: On the Multiple Paths to the Measurement Result",
      "abstract": "The following analysis attempts to provide a general account of the multiple solutions given to the quantum measurement problem in terms of causality. Leaving aside instrumentalism which restricts its understanding of quantum mechanics to the algorithmic prediction of measurement outcomes, the many approaches which try to give an answer can be distinguished by their explanation based on the efficient cause -recovering in this way a classical physical description- or based on the final cause -which goes back to the hylomorphic tradition. Going beyond the limits of these two schemes we call the attention to an 'inversion of the measurement problem' and its proposed solution based on the immanent cause. By replacing both the final and efficient causes by the immanent cause we attempt to lay down new conditions for representing quantum superpositions in a realist way which coherently relates the quantum formalism with outcomes.",
      "comment": null,
      "journal": null,
      "doi": null
    },
    {
      "version": "v2",
      "updated": "2017-10-25T14:26:16.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "measurement result",
      "multiple paths",
      "quantum measurement problem",
      "realist way",
      "general account"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 0,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "adsabs": "2013arXiv1310.4534D"
    }
  }
}