Shan Gao is an Associate Professor at the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his PhD degree in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Sydney in 2013. He is the founder and managing editor of International Journal of Quantum Foundations. He is the author of several books and the editor of the recent anthology Protective Measurement and Quantum Reality: Towards a New Understanding of Quantum Mechanics. His book Meaning of the Wave Function: In Search of the Ontology of Quantum Mechanics is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press. His research focuses on the foundations of quantum mechanics and history of modern physics.
Dates of Visit: 14–23 July, 2016
Project Title: Protective measurements and the reality of the wave function
Project Description: The nature of the wave function has been a hot topic of debate since the early days of quantum mechanics. Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in this long-standing question. Is the wave function ontic, directly representing a state of reality, or epistemic, merely representing a state of (incomplete) knowledge? In a previous publication (Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 52, 198-202), I gave a proof of the reality of the wave function in terms of protective measurements. The proof does not rely on auxiliary assumptions, and also applies to deterministic theories such as Bohm's theory. This improves the Pusey-Barrett-Rudolph theorem. In this research project, I will give a further analysis of how a protective measurement influences the measured system and obtains its result. The analysis will strengthen my previous arguments for psi-ontology in terms of protective measurements.