Is uniqueness of reality predicted by the quantum laws?
pp. 315-330
in: Evandro Agazzi (ed), Varieties of scientific realism, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
The standard interpretation of quantum mechanics takes for granted an impossibility of deriving "wave function collapse" from the Schrödinger equation. One raises an opposite possibility, which would make collapse one of the major predictions of this equation. This proposal is based on properties of "local entanglement", and existence of a strong incoherence in the quantum states of a macroscopic system, from local entanglement with fluctuations in its environment. These two consequences of Schrödinger's equation, inexpressible by quantum observables, are shown able to imply collapse. An exceptional significance of the collapse problem, together with a novelty wanting thorough justification in these results, make them proposed only as conjectures, with could however bring more harmony into this essential part of the philosophy of physics.