Does the wavefunction of the universe exist?

Thomas Krüger

Published 2004-04-07, updated 2004-06-02Version 2

The overwhelming majority of scientists still takes it for granted that classical mechanics (ClM) is nothing but a limiting case of quantum mechanics (QM). Although some physicists restrict this belief to a generalized QM as represented, e. g., by the algebra of observables, it will be shown in this contribution that the view of ClM as a mere sub-set of QM is nevertheless unfounded. The usual attempts to derive the laws of ClM from QM are either insufficient or not universally applicable. The transition from traditional to algebraic QM does not add any further insight. It is demonstrated that typical constituents of the classical macroscopic world i) cannot be described reasonably in terms of QM and/or ii) do not show up the typical quantum behavior which manifests in the double-slit interference and in the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations. Moreover, both attempts to recover ClM from QM and approaches based on vacuum fluctuations are critically inspected, and we arrive at the conclusion: QM does not comprehend ClM, i. e., a wavefunction of the universe does not exist.