What can bouncing oil droplets tell us about quantum mechanics?
What can bouncing oil droplets tell us about quantum mechanics?
复制标题
关于量子力学,弹跳的油滴可以告诉我们什么?
DOI:
10.1007/s13194-020-00301-0
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发表时间:
2020
影响因子:
1.5
通讯作者:
Evans P
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Evans P
A recent series of experiments have demonstrated that a classical fluid mechanical system, constituted by an oil droplet bouncing on a vibrating fluid surface, can be induced to display a number of behaviours previously considered to be distinctly quantum. To explain this correspondence it has been suggested that the fluid mechanical system provides a single-particle classical model of de Broglie’s idiosyncratic ‘double solution’ pilot wave theory of quantum mechanics. In this paper we assess the epistemic function of the bouncing oil droplet experiments in relation to quantum mechanics. We find that the bouncing oil droplets are best conceived as ananalogue illustrationof quantum phenomena, rather than ananalogue simulation, and, furthermore, that their epistemic value should be understood in terms of how-possibly explanation, rather than confirmation. Analogue illustration, unlike analogue simulation, is not a form of ‘material surrogacy’, in which source empirical phenomena in a system of one kind can be understood as ‘standing in for’ target phenomena in a system of another kind. Rather, analogue illustration leverages a correspondence between certain empirical phenomena displayed by a source system and aspects of the ontology of a target system. On the one hand, this limits the potential inferential power of analogue illustrations, but, on the other, it widens their potential inferential scope. In particular, through analogue illustration we can learn, in the sense of gaining how-possibly understanding, about the putative ontology of a target system via an experiment. As such, the potential scientific value of these extraordinary experiments is undoubtedly a significant one.
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DOI:
10.1093/bjps/axx005
发表时间:
2018-12
期刊:
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
影响因子:
--
作者:
A. Reutlinger;D. Hangleiter;S. Hartmann
通讯作者:
A. Reutlinger;D. Hangleiter;S. Hartmann
影响因子:
3.7
作者:
Pucci, Giuseppe;Harris, Daniel M.;Faria, Luiz M.;Bush, John W.
通讯作者:
Bush, John W.
DOI:
--
发表时间:
2015
期刊:
Philosophia Scientiæ
影响因子:
--
作者:
Michael E. Cuffaro
通讯作者:
Michael E. Cuffaro
影响因子:
1.7
作者:
Vickers P
通讯作者:
Vickers P
影响因子:
1.5
作者:
Christian Borghesi
通讯作者:
Christian Borghesi