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SUMMARY:Limitations on the psi-epistemic view of quantum states - Owen Mar
 oney (University of Oxford)
DTSTART:20130228T141500Z
DTEND:20130228T151500Z
UID:TALK42849@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Paul Skrzypczyk
DESCRIPTION:The "psi-epistemic" view is that the quantum state does not re
 present a state of the world\, but a state of knowledge about the world.  
 It draws its motivation\, in part\, from the observation of qualitative si
 milarities between characteristic properties of non-orthogonal quantum wav
 efunctions and between overlapping classical probability distributions.  I
 t might be suggested that this gives a natural explanation for these prope
 rties\, which seem puzzling for the alternative "psi-ontic" view.  I will 
 examine two such similarities\, quantum state overlap and quantum state di
 scrimination\, and ask how far we can reproduce the quantitative values gi
 ven by quantum theory.  It will be shown that the psi-epistemic view canno
 t account for these values\, and must instead rely on the same kind of exp
 lanations as the "psi-ontic" view.
LOCATION:MR13\, Centre for Mathematical Sciences
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