a response to Realism and Objectivism in Quantum Mechanics by Vassilios Karakostas

Notes for the Quantum Realist

a response to Realism and Objectivism in Quantum Mechanics by Vassilios Karakostas, Forthcoming in Journal for General Philosophy of Science 2012 (Vol. 43, Issue 1). Available at: http://www.springerlink.com/openurl.asp?genre=article&id=doi:10.1007/s10838-012-9173-5&cm_mmc=event-_-articleAuthor-_-onlineFirst-_-0

Let there be quantum subsystems S₁, S₂, and supposed they've interacted. Then

1) what is real for the measuring apparatus is no longer S₁ and S₂, but a third quantum system S₃

If S₁ and S₂ are represented by vectors on Hilbert spaces H_S1 and H_S2, respectively, after interaction S₃ is represented by a vector on 

If {p_i} are all of the properties of S₁ and {p_j} are all of the properties of S₂, then S₃ has strictly more properties than all of {p_i} and {p_j} together.

Kochen-Specker yields one kind of contextuality

2) from a selection of possible measurements, some "properties" depend for their values on which of the measurements are eventually preformed (Kochen-Specker)

these are properties of the single combined quantum system - measuring apparatus.

I would add another kind of contextuality, Relationalism. What is real for the measuring apparatus is S₃. At the same time,

3) in a frame of reference in which the singlet particles have not yet interacted, S₃ is not real

I'd also add

4) for the Realist, reality is non-local. However, non-locality in this specific sense is not problematic. A pair of particles in the singlet state must, buy (1) above, be thought of as a single third system S_singlet, not the first particle system and the second particle system. Then, the relevant generalization of the Kochen-Specker theorem shows that this third system S_singlet does not posses the property of location-in-space-at-this-moment, before measurement by the measuring apparatus. As a result, one can't think of S_singlet as being contained within all of space, at this moment. There's nothing wrong with this if "space" is just the order relation of quantum interactions: it just means S_singlet hasn't interacted with the measuring apparatus yet, in a measurement on a Hilbert space in which one can express location.

[note to self: qualia are not usually thought of as being contained within all of 3rd-person space.]