A top-down versus a bottom-up hidden-variables description of the Stern-Gerlach experiment

TL;DR

This paper compares top-down and bottom-up hidden-variable approaches to the Stern-Gerlach experiment, emphasizing the benefits of a minimalist, structural perspective in quantum foundations and revealing subtleties in Bohmian hidden variables.

Contribution

It introduces a non-interpretational top-down framework for quantum foundations and discusses its advantages over traditional hidden variables theories like Bohmian mechanics.

Findings

Top-down approach avoids referencing the fundamental structure of closed systems.

Bohmian hidden variables are more subtle than commonly perceived.

Structural studies offer new insights into quantum foundations.

Abstract

We employ the Stern-Gerlach experiment to highlight the basics of a minimalist, non-interpretational top-down approach to quantum foundations. Certain benefits of the here highlighted "quantum structural studies" are detected and discussed. While the top-down approach can be described without making any reference to the fundamental structure of a closed system, the hidden variables theory ?a la Bohm proves to be more subtle than it is typically regarded.