Possibility and time in quantum mechanics

SEBASTIAN FORTIN; OLIMPIA LOMBARDI; MATÍAS PASQUALINI

ENTROPY

MOLECULAR DIVERSITY PRESERVATION INTERNATIONAL-MDPI

Lugar: Basel; Año: 2022 vol. 24 p. 1 - 16

1099-4300

In the discourse ofquantum mechanics it is usual to say that non-commuting observables cannot have definite values at the sametime, or that they cannot besimultaneously measured. But, what does the term 'cannot' mean in this context?Does it stand for impossible? Should Heisenberg's principle be read in terms ofuncertainty or of indeterminacy? On the other hand, whereas the debates about the nature of time in classical andrelativistic mechanics have been many and varied, the question about the natureof time in quantum mechanics has not received the same attention, especiallywhen compared to the large amount of literature on interpretive issues. Thepurpose of this paper is to show that, under a realist interpretation ofquantum mechanics, these two matters, possibility and time, are stronglyrelated. The final aim is to argue that, when possibility and actuality areconceived as irreducible modes of being, they are correlated to two different notionsof time that can be distinguished in the quantum realm: parameter-time andevent-time.