On February 28th 2012, Professor Terry Rudolph from Imperial College London, gave a public lecture at the Institute of Physics.
Professor Terry Rudolph is a lecturer in Quantum Physics in the Physics Department at Imperial College London. During his lecture, Professor Rudolph explored the question: What is the quantum state? He argued that there is no widely agreed answer to this question, despite the ubiquitous and crucial role this mathematical object plays in our lives.
Dr Rudolph explains that two broad schools of thought can be identified. The “ontic view” is that the quantum state describes (partially or completely) the real physical state of affairs. The “epistemic view” is that it instead represents some agent’s knowledge or information about the physical system in question.
During Dr Rudolph’s lecture, he explained a new result, namely that local realism for product states is only compatible with the ontic view of quantum states. Dr Rudolph said “This result will hopefully leave you as uncomfortable about the status of the quantum state as I am, and perhaps, like me, after the talk you will find yourself requiring some fortification before having the courage to step out into reality…”