PHIL 146: Philosophy of Physics
Midterm Exam #2
Due at 5pm Sunday, 11/14
An adequate answer to each question should be about one to three
paragraphs. Please type your answers on a computer and upload as
a PDF file on Canvas. For the midterm exams, no collaboration is
allowed. Violations of Academic Integrity will be reported to the
AI office.
Please thoroughly review the textbooks, required readings, and the lecture notes.
But please do not copy and paste from them. If you paraphrase anything, please
properly cite the sources.
1. What is the ontology and the dynamics of GRWf (with the flash ontology)
and GRWm (with the mass density ontology)? What is the ontology and the
dynamics of Bohmian mechanics? Please aim for precision and completeness
in your answer.
2. How does the GRW theory solve the measurement problem (you may ignore
the tails problem here)? How does Bohmian mechanics solve the measurement
problem? Please feel free to use Schrödinger’s cat to illustrate.
3. What is non-locality (as proved in Bell’s theorem)? In what way is the GRW
theory non-local? In what way is Bohmian mechanics non-local?
4. How is the conditional wave function defined in Bohmian mechanics? Please
e very clear. Can the same conditional wave function be defined in the GRW
theory? Why or why not?
5. How does Bohmian mechanics explain the interference patterns in the Double
Slit experiment? How does it explain the absence of interference patterns in
the Double Slit with Monitoring experiment? Hint: you may use Figure 24,
Figure 25, and Figure 26 from MAU in your answer, but please make sure to
explain what the curves mean physically.
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