Quantum Measurement without Ontology

TL;DR

This paper explores the nature of quantum measurement, emphasizing that outcomes are created rather than revealed, challenging classical notions of objectivity and prior facts.

Contribution

It offers a new perspective on quantum measurement that bypasses traditional ontological assumptions about measurement outcomes.

Findings

Quantum outcomes are typically created, not revealed.

Unitary quantum theory cannot fully explain or represent measurement outcomes.

Scientific practice maintains objectivity despite quantum no-go theorems.

Abstract

Measurement is an important scientific activity. In most of science, including classical physics, is may be understood as a way of finding out about the physical world and representing the results numerically. No-go theorems show that measurement of quantum observables is not like that: the recorded outcome is typically created rather than revealed in a quantum measurement, in which case there is no objective fact about the observable's prior value. Other no-go theorems show that unitary quantum theory can generally neither explain nor even represent a unique recorded outcome, thereby threatening that outcome's objectivity. Methodological norms inherent in quantum physical practice nevertheless institute the objectivity, not only of unique recorded outcomes of quantum measurements, but also of non-quantum features of the world that physicists and other scientists take their models to represent.