The Point Processes of the GRW Theory of Wave Function Collapse

Abstract

The Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber (GRW) theory is a physical theory that, when combined with a suitable ontology, provides an explanation of quantum mechanics. The so-called collapse of the wave function is problematic in conventional quantum theory but not in the GRW theory, in which it is governed by a stochastic law. A possible ontology is the flash ontology, according to which matter consists of random points in space-time, called flashes. The joint distribution of these points, a point process in space-time, is the topic of this work. The mathematical results concern mainly the existence and uniqueness of this distribution for several variants of the theory. Particular attention is paid to the relativistic version of the GRW theory that I developed in 2004.

72 pages LaTeX, 3 figures

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• Gravitational Decoherence, Alternative Quantum Theories and Semiclassical Gravity
• Epistemology of Wave Function Collapse in Quantum Physics
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