Contexts, Systems and Modalities: a new ontology for quantum mechanics

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new quantum ontology that attributes properties jointly to systems and their contexts, aiming to reconcile quantum mechanics with physical realism and clarify its counter-intuitive features.

Contribution

It introduces a modified quantum ontology involving joint attribution of properties to systems and contexts, offering a new perspective on quantum phenomena.

Findings

Provides a framework aligning quantum mechanics with physical realism

Offers explanations for quantum probabilities and non-locality

Clarifies the quantum-classical boundary

Abstract

In this article we present a possible way to make usual quantum mechanics fully compatible with physical realism, defined as the statement that the goal of physics is to study entities of the natural world, existing independently from any particular observer's perception, and obeying universal and intelligible rules. Rather than elaborating on the quantum formalism itself, we propose to modify the quantum ontology, by requiring that physical properties are attributed jointly to the system, and to the context in which it is embedded. In combination with a quantization principle, this non-classical definition of physical reality sheds new light on counter-intuitive features of quantum mechanics such as the origin of probabilities, non-locality, and the quantum-classical boundary.