Abstract

Classical physics was built on a ‘particle view’ of matter where fundamental entities were assumed to be tiny indivisible structures with objective properties and permanent existence. This view was held from the earliest days of scientific thought until the 1920s when experiments and theories began exposing a wave aspect of matter. This led to ‘wave-particle duality’ where fundamental entities exhibited both wave-like and particle-like behaviors, a view that remains the default assumption to this day. Yet numerous mysteries and paradoxes remain unresolved under the wave-particle view despite a century of investigation into quantum phenomena, suggesting it may not be the correct lens to view fundamental entities.

This paper argues that quantum mysteries and paradoxes arise from mathematics, interpretations, and terminology that remain primarily grounded in the assumption that particles are fundamental constituents of reality while attributing little-to-no ontological status to the wave aspect of matter. Physicists speak of particles in superposition existing in multiple places simultaneously, particles having hidden properties when not being measured, wave functions collapsing from many possible particles in superposition to one actual particle upon measurement, entangled particles influencing one another at a distance, and so on. This particle-centric perspective and terminology was useful in the 1920s as physicists grappled with fitting the newly discovered wave behaviors into their existing particle physics framework, but they have become an obstacle to understanding what quantum physics is telling us about the intrinsic nature of matter. It is time to consider a third possibility where the intrinsic nature of matter is not particle-like, not wave-particle-like, but purely wave-like. This paper explores the wave nature of matter as an ontological position and traces its consequences through an array of quantum mysteries.
 

Eleven quantum formalisms are explored which differ significantly in their mathematical structures, objects they treat as fundamental entities, and the higher dimensional abstract mathematics used to make predictions. Yet each directly represents or predicts that fundamental entities evolve continuously, exchange energy in discrete amounts, have extended structures that exhibit wave-like interference and non-local entanglement, and produce precise values only when they are measured. In short, they describe wave behaviors more than particle behaviors. These shared features across formalisms logically provide a more reliable guide to the intrinsic nature of fundamental entities than any single formalism can provide from its unique and abstract mathematical vantage point. These shared features are embedded into a wave realism claim whose consequences will be traced throughout the mysteries and paradoxes of quantum physics:
 

The Wave Energy Exchange (WEX) Principle: The sole persistent constituents of physical reality are energy waves that have spatial extent, dynamical structures, and exchange energy in discrete quanta. Particles with precise properties are point-in-time energy signatures of quanta absorbed by measurement devices. 
 

Energy waves have extended dynamical structures that evolve over time and carry no precise values of any kind. Precise values only appear in the ‘energy signature’ of a quantum absorbed by a measurement device. Measurement devices essentially take a ‘snapshot’ of the absorbed energy at a specific point in space and time, translate it into the variables used in physics equations, and store the values of the variables as property values in memory and display them on screens. In short, the WEX principle asserts that particles are illusions and energy waves are the sole ontological primitive. Twelve precise definitions are offered for currently undefined terms in standard quantum theory which remove ambiguities and allow the WEX principle to naturally resolve numerous quantum mysteries and paradoxes.