Could wavefunctions simultaneously represent knowledge and reality?

TL;DR

This paper challenges the traditional view that wavefunctions in quantum mechanics can only be ontic or epistemic, proposing they might represent both reality and knowledge simultaneously, prompting a re-evaluation of existing theorems.

Contribution

It offers a new perspective suggesting wavefunctions can be both ontic and epistemic, contradicting formal definitions and implications of the Pusey-Barrett-Rudolph theorem.

Findings

Wavefunctions may simultaneously represent knowledge and reality.

Formal definitions of $ ext{ψ}$-ontic and $ ext{ψ}$-epistemic are not mutually exclusive.

Implications for quantum interpretation theories are reconsidered.

Abstract

In discussion of the interpretation of quantum mechanics the terms `ontic' and `epistemic' are often used in the sense of pertaining to what exists, and pertaining to cognition or knowledge respectively. The terms are also often associated with the formal definitions given by Harrigan and Spekkens for the wavefunction in quantum mechanics to be $\psi$-ontic or $\psi$-epistemic in the context of the ontological models framework. The formal definitions are contradictories, so that the wavefunction can be either $\psi$-epistemic or $\psi$-ontic but not both. However, we argue, nothing about the informal ideas of epistemic and ontic interpretations rules out wavefunctions representing both reality and knowledge. The implications of the Pusey-Barrett-Rudolph theorem and many other issues may be rethought in the light of our analysis.