The Physical Salience of Non-Fundamental Local Beables

Egg, Matthias (2016). The Physical Salience of Non-Fundamental Local Beables. Studies in history and philosophy of modern physics, 57, pp. 104-110. Elsevier 10.1016/j.shpsb.2016.10.007

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I defend the idea that objects and events in three-dimensional space (so-called local beables) are part of the derivative ontology of quantum mechanics, rather than its fundamental ontology. The main objection to this idea stems from the question of how it can endow local beables with physical salience, as opposed to mere mathematical definability. I show that the responses to this objection in the previous literature are insufficient, and I provide the necessary arguments to render them successful. This includes demonstrating the legitimacy of dynamical considerations in the derivation of local beables and responding to the threat stemming from the availability of different sets of local beables in the context of the GRW theory.

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