2022/04/20 by Anandamay Das Bhowmik, Preeti Parashar, Bhowmik, Anandamay Das +1 · 2 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2204.09736
openalex publication_date 2022/04/20 · openalex created_date 2022/05/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Despite being the most fundamental object in quantum theory, physicists are yet to reach a consensus on the interpretation of a quantum wavefunction. In the broad class of realist approaches, quantum states are viewed as Liouville-like probability distributions over some space of physical variables where indistinguishabity of non-orthogonal states is attributed to overlaps between these distributions. Here we argue that such an interpretation of quantum indistinguishability is wrong. In particular, we show that quantum mechanical prediction of maximal violation of Mermin inequality in certain thought experiment is incompatible with all ontological interpretations for quantum theory where indistinguishability of non-orthonal quantum states is explained, even partially, in terms of overlap of their Liouville distributions.