PIRSA:12110060

What is a Wavefunction?

Myrvold, W. (2012). What is a Wavefunction?. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/12110060

Myrvold, Wayne. What is a Wavefunction?. Perimeter Institute, Nov. 01, 2012, https://pirsa.org/12110060 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:12110060,
            doi = {10.48660/12110060},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/12110060},
            author = {Myrvold, Wayne},
            keywords = {},
            language = {en},
            title = {What is a Wavefunction?},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2012},
            month = {nov},
            note = {PIRSA:12110060 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Wayne Myrvold Western University

DOI 10.48660/12110060
Collection
Talk Type Scientific Series

Abstract

The fact that the quantum wavefunction of a many-particle system is a function on a high-dimensional configuration space, rather than on spacetime, has led some to suggest that any realist understanding of quantum mechanics must regard configuration space as more fundamental than spacetime. Worse, it seems that a wavefunction monist ontology cannot help itself to talk of "configuration space" at all, without particles for the configurations to be configurations of. The wavefunction, it might seem, threatens to become a function defined on a high-dimensional space whose relation to spacetime is obscure. I will argue that such worries are misplaced.