David Ellerman: To Interpret QM, “Follow the Math” – Math of QM = Hilbert Space version of Partition Math

Speaker: David Ellerman

Abstract: This talk presents a new “partitional” approach to understanding or interpreting standard quantum mechanics (QM). The thesis is that the mathematics (not the physics) of QM is the Hilbert space version of the math of partitions on a set and, conversely, the math of partitions is a skeletonized set level version of the math of QM. Since at the set level, partitions are the mathematical tool to represent distinctions and indistinctions (or definiteness and indefiniteness), this approach shows how to interpret the key non-classical QM notion of superposition in terms of (objective) indefiniteness (as opposed to interpreting it as the addition of waves). Hence this partitional approach substantiates what might be called the Objective Indefiniteness Interpretation of QM.