Completely real? A critical note on the claims by Colbeck and Renner

Abstract

In a series of papers Colbeck and Renner claim to have shown that the quantum state provides a complete description for the prediction of future measurement outcomes. In this paper I argue that thus far no solid satisfactory proof has been presented to support this claim. Building on the earlier work of Leifer, Landsman and Leegwater, I present and prove two results that only partially support this claim. I then discuss the arguments by Colbeck, Renner and Leegwater concerning how these results are to generalize to the full claim. This argument turns out to hinge on the implicit use of an assumption concerning the way unitary evolution is to be represented in any possible completion of quantum mechanics. I argue that this assumption is unsatisfactory and that possible attempts to validate it based on measurement theory also do not succeed.

arXiv commentThis version is identical to the published version (modulo a few typos). The typesetting has been altered slightly in comparison to the previous arXiv version to improve readability. This is done because the appendix in the published version is not very readable. In fact, the published version refers to the appendix of this version for the proofs of the theorems

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Could wavefunctions simultaneously represent knowledge and reality?
• Epistemic Boundaries and Quantum Uncertainty: What Local Observers Can (Not) Predict
• Quantum Mechanics: Statistical Balance Prompts Caution in Assessing Conceptual Implications