Indistinguishability and entanglement: A new approach

OLIMPIA LOMBARDI; SEBASTIAN FORTIN

Torino

Congreso; 8th biennial meeting of the European Philosophy of Science Association (EPSA21); 2021

European Philosophy of Science Association

Discussions around this issue are almost alwaysframed in the Hilbert-space formalism, according to which a quantum system isrepresented by a Hilbert space. From a formal viewpoint, the Hilbert space isthe basic element of the theory: states, represented by vectors, are logicallyprior; observables are logically posterior since represented by operatorsacting on those previously defined vectors. In general, this logical priorityof states over observables is implicitly endowed with an ontological content:quantum systems belong to the ontological category of individual, andobservables belong to the ontological category of property; and given the metaphysicalpriority of individuals over properties, the ontological priority of systemswith their states over observables turns out to be ?natural?. In this work wepropose an approach to the problem based on the algebraic formalism of quantummechanics, which is the natural formal counterpart of an ontology ofproperties, devoid of the ontological category of individual.