Non-accessible mass and the ontology of GRW

Abstract

The Mass Density approach to GRW (GRW_M for short) has been widely discussed in the quantum foundations literature. A crucial feature of GRW_M is the introduction of a Criterion of Accessibility for mass, which allows to explain the determinacy of experimental outcomes thus also addressing the tails problem of GRW. However, the Criterion of Accessibility leaves the ontological meaning of the non-accessible portion of mass utterly unexplained. In this paper I discuss two viable approaches to non-accessible mass, which I call anti-realist and realist, and will defend the latter. First, I show that the anti-realist approach suffers from various objections. Second, I develop an account of non-accessible mass density states as objectively indeterminate states of affairs.

Keywords: Collapse theories; Mass density GRW; Ontic indeterminacy; Quantum mechanics; Tails problem.