Inferring the statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics from the classical limit

Kurt Gottfried ()
Additional contact information
Kurt Gottfried: Laboratory for Nuclear Studies, Cornell University

Nature, 2000, vol. 405, issue 6786, 533-536

Abstract: Abstract It is widely believed that the statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics cannot be inferred from the Schrödinger equation itself, and must be stated as an additional independent axiom. Here I propose that the situation is not so stark. For systems that have both continuous and discrete degrees of freedom (such as coordinates and spin respectively), the statistical interpretation for the discrete variables is implied by requiring that the system's gross motion can be classically described under circumstances specified by the Schrödinger equation. However, this is not a full-fledged derivation of the statistical interpretation because it does not apply to the continuous variables of classical mechanics.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35014500 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:405:y:2000:i:6786:d:10.1038_35014500

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35014500

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().