Quantum mechanics: symmetry and interpretation

SEBASTIAN FORTIN; OLIMPIA LOMBARDI

Londres

Congreso; 18th European Conference on Foundations of Physics; 2016

London School of Economics

In this paper it will be argued that anyrealist interpretation of quantum mechanics intending to preserve theobjectivity of the set of the definite-valued observables should require such aset to be invariant under the symmetry group of the theory. In particular, itwill be shown that the natural way to reach this goal is to appeal to the Casimiroperators of the Galilean group. Additionally, this idea will be generalized intwo ways: (i) by selecting the definite-valued observables of a system inquantum field theory as those represented by the Casimir operators of thePoincaré group, and (ii) by extending the strategy to gauge symmetries.