Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2017
Abstract
Huw Price has proposed an argument that suggests a time-symmetric ontology for quantum theory must necessarily be retrocausal, i.e. it must involve influences that travel backwards in time. One of Price's assumptions is that the quantum state is a state of reality. However, one of the reasons for exploring retrocausality is that it offers the potential for evading the consequences of no-go theorems, including recent proofs of the reality of the quantum state. Here, we show that this assumption can be replaced by a different assumption, called λ-mediation, that plausibly holds independently of the status of the quantum state. We also reformulate the other assumptions behind the argument to place them in a more general framework and pin down the notion of time symmetry involved more precisely. We show that our assumptions imply a timelike analogue of Bell's local causality criterion and, in doing so, give a new interpretation of timelike violations of Bell inequalities. Namely, they show the impossibility of a (non-retrocausal) time-symmetric ontology.
Recommended Citation
Leifer, M.S., Pusey, M.F., 2017. Is a time symmetric interpretation of quantum theory possible without retrocausality? Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Science 473. doi:10.1098/rspa.2016.0607
Peer Reviewed
1
Copyright
The Royal Society
Comments
This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Science, volume 473, in 2017 following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2016.0607.