Abstract

GAO, Shan. Interpreting the wave function - what are electrons? And how do they move?. discus.filos [online]. 2013, vol.14, n.22, pp.13-23. ISSN 0124-6127.

In quantum mechanics, the physical state of an electron is described by a wave function. According to the standard probability interpretation, the wave function of an electron is probability amplitude, and its modulus square gives the probability density of finding the electron in a certain position in space. In this article, we show that this central assumption of quantum mechanics may have an ontological extension. It is argued that microscopic particles such as electrons are indeed particles, but their motion is not continuous but discontinuous and random. On this view, the modulus square of the wave function not only gives the probability density of the particles being found in certain locations, but also gives the probability density of the particles being there. In other words, the wave function in quantum mechanics can be regarded as a representation of the state of random discontinuous motion of particles, and at a deeper level, it may represent the dispositional property of the particles that determines their random discontinuous motion.

Keywords : electrons; dispositional property; probability density; random discontinuous motion; wave function.

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