Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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SYRP: Intersectional Symposium The Concept of Reality in Physics

SYRP 1: The Concept of Reality in Physics I

SYRP 1.1: Hauptvortrag

Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 14:30–15:00, HSZ 01

What is realism in physics? What is the price for maintaining it? — •Anthony J. Leggett — Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA

While the formalism of quantum mechanics, if taken seriously, appears to raise doubts about "naive realism" as applied to the physical world, a more important point (as appreciated in effect by the late John Bell) is that if in certain types of experiments the results come out as predicted by QM, then irrespective of the validity or not of the QM world view, the experimental outcomes themselves pose challenges to a realistic viewpoint. The relevant experiments fall into two major classes, each motivated by a classic paradox of QM:EPR on the one hand, Schrödinger’s cat on the other. I will try to explore the possible meanings of "realism" in each of these contexts, and ask what price one has to pay (or may in the future have to pay, if the predictions of QM continue to be confirmed) in order to maintain some form of the concept of realism in physics.