Quantum Mechanics and modelling of physical reality

Abstract

Quantum mechanics led to spectacular technological developments, discovery of new constituents of matter and new materials. However there is still no consensus on its interpretation and limitations. Some scientists and scientific writers promote some exotic interpretations and evoke quantum magic. In this paper we point out that magical explanations mean the end of the science. Magical explanations are misleading and counterproductive. We explain how a simple probabilistic locally causal model is able to reproduce quantum correlations in Bell tests. We also discuss difficulties of mathematical modelling of the physical reality and dangers of incorrect mental images. We examine in detail when and how a probabilistic model may describe completely a random experiment. We give some arguments in favor of contextual statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics. We conclude that we still do not know whether the quantum theory provides a complete description of physical phenomena and we explain how it may be tested. We also point out that there remain several open questions and challenges which we discuss in some detail. In particular there is still no consensus about how to reconcile quantum theory with general relativity and cosmology.

13 pages,90 references. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:quant-ph/0208061, in this a second version I added 3 references, corrected some misprints and make some minor style improvements

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Is the Moon there if nobody looks: Bell Inequalities and Physical Reality
• Understanding quantum mechanics: a review and synthesis in precise language
• Contextuality-by-Default description of Bell tests: Contextuality as the rule not as an exception
• Contextuality or nonlocality; what would John Bell choose today?
• My discussions of quantum foundations with John Stewart Bell
• Statistical Contextual Explanation of Quantum Paradoxes
• Contextuality as the Key to understand Quantum Paradoxes