Quantum epistemology from subquantum ontology: quantum mechanics from theory of classical random fields

TL;DR

This paper proposes a classical random field-based ontic model to interpret quantum mechanics, clarifying quantum states and superposition through classical correlations, bridging the gap between reality and observation.

Contribution

It introduces a prequantum classical statistical field theory as an ontic model that explains quantum entities and phenomena, offering a new physical interpretation of quantum states.

Findings

Quantum states interpreted as classical field correlations

Superposition principle explained via classical covariance

PCSFT provides a natural ontic foundation for quantum mechanics

Abstract

The scientific methodology based on two descriptive levels, ontic (reality as it is ) and epistemic (observational), is briefly presented. Following Schr\"odinger, we point to the possible gap between these two descriptions. Our main aim is to show that, although ontic entities may be inaccessible for observations, they can be useful for clarification of the physical nature of operational epistemic entities. We illustrate this thesis by the concrete example: starting with the concrete ontic model preceding quantum mechanics (the latter is treated as an epistemic model), namely, prequantum classical statistical field theory (PCSFT), we propose the natural physical interpretation for the basic quantum mechanical entity - the quantum state ("wave function"). The correspondence PCSFT to QM is not straightforward, it couples the covariance operators of classical (prequantum) random fields with the quantum density operators. We use this correspondence to clarify the physical meaning of the pure quantum state and the superposition principle - by using the formalism of classical field correlations.