# Discerning “Indistinguishable” Quantum Systems

@article{Caulton2013DiscerningQ,
title={Discerning “Indistinguishable” Quantum Systems},
journal={Philosophy of Science},
year={2013},
volume={80},
pages={49 - 72}
}
• A. Caulton
• Published 1 January 2013
• Philosophy
• Philosophy of Science
In a series of recent papers, Simon Saunders, Fred Muller, and Michael Seevinck have collectively argued, against the folklore, that some nontrivial version of Leibniz’s principle of the identity of indiscernibles is upheld in quantum mechanics. They argue that all particles—fermions, paraparticles, anyons, even bosons—may be weakly discerned by some physical relation. Here I show that their arguments make illegitimate appeal to nonsymmetric, that is, permutation-noninvariant, quantities and…
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