2024/02/27 by D. M. Fucci, R. M. Angelo, Fucci, D. M. +1
Social Sciences · #FOS: Physical sciences #Political Science Research and Education #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2402.17123
openalex publication_date 2024/02/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The distinctive features of quantum mechanics, which set it apart from other physical theories, challenge our notions of realism. Recovering realism from purely philosophical grounds, a quantitative and operational criterion was proposed in the past, but solely for the context of quantum mechanics. We use a framework of generalized probabilistic theories to expand the notion of realism for a theory-independent context, providing a criterion uniquely based on the probabilities assigned to measurement outcomes. More so, using robustness and the Kullback-Leibler divergence, we propose quantifiers for the realism of arbitrary physical properties given a particular state of a generic physical theory. These theory-independent quantifiers are then employed in quantum mechanics and we investigate their relation with another well-established irrealism measure.