Consecutive measurements and modal interpretations

JUAN SEBASTIÁN ARDENGHI; OLIMPIA LOMBARDI; MARTÍN NARVAJA

Atenas

Congreso; Third Conference of the European Philosophy of Science Association; 2011

European Philosophy of Science Association

The phenomenon of the correlations between the outcomes of consecutive measurements is strongly entrenched in the quantum knowledge of practicing physicists. They usually explain these correlations in a straightforward way by means of the collapse hypothesis. On the other hand, since modal interpretations are no-collapse interpretations, they need an alternative explanation for those experimental results. In this paper we will argue that consecutive measurements are not a threat for modal interpretations since collapse is not indispensable for explaining the correlations arising in that experimental situation. Nevertheless, the same argument will show that modal interpretations need to revise the role assigned to reduced states in their interpretative framework.