The sky is blue, and other reasons quantum mechanics is not underdetermined by evidence

TL;DR

The paper argues that the underdetermination of quantum theories by evidence is false because current theories cannot be generalized to quantum field theory, excluding many key experiments like Rayleigh scattering.

Contribution

It challenges the view that different quantum interpretations are empirically indistinguishable by showing their current limitations in quantum field theory.

Findings

Many iconic quantum experiments are not reproducible by current interpretations

Current theories lack generalization to quantum field theory

Underdetermination is broken by these theoretical limitations

Abstract

I criticize the widely-defended view that the quantum measurement problem is an example of underdetermination of theory by evidence: more specifically, the view that the unmodified, unitary quantum formalism (interpreted following Everett) is empirically indistinguishable from Bohmian Mechanics and from dynamical-collapse theories like the GRW or CSL theories. I argue that there as yet no empirically successful generalization of either theory to interacting quantum field theory and so the apparent underdetermination is broken by a very large class of quantum experiments that require field theory somewhere in their description. The class of quantum experiments reproducible by either is much smaller than is commonly recognized and excludes many of the most iconic successes of quantum mechanics, including the quantitative account of Rayleigh scattering that explains the color of the sky. I respond to various arguments to the contrary in the recent literature.