Many-Worlds and Schroedinger's First Quantum Theory

TL;DR

This paper revisits Schroedinger's initial wave function interpretation, showing it aligns with a many-worlds perspective and offers a clearer ontological framework than Everett's formulation.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Schroedinger's first quantum theory, using mass density, is an empirically adequate many-worlds interpretation with clearer ontology.

Findings

The theory is empirically adequate as a many-worlds interpretation.

Schroedinger's first theory offers a clearer ontological picture than Everett's.

The mass density formulation aligns with observable phenomena.

Abstract

Schroedinger's first proposal for the interpretation of quantum mechanics was based on a postulate relating the wave function on configuration space to charge density in physical space. Schroedinger apparently later thought that his proposal was empirically wrong. We argue here that this is not the case, at least for a very similar proposal with charge density replaced by mass density. We argue that when analyzed carefully this theory is seen to be an empirically adequate many-worlds theory and not an empirically inadequate theory describing a single world. Moreover, this formulation--Schroedinger's first quantum theory--can be regarded as a formulation of the many-worlds view of quantum mechanics that is ontologically clearer than Everett's.