Reality and measurement of the wave function

Abstract

Using a simple version of the model for the quantum measurement of a two-level system, the contention of Aharonov, Anandan, and Vaidman [Phys. Rev. A 47, 4616 (1993)] that one must in certain circumstances give the wave function an ontological as well as an epistemological significance is examined. I decide that their argument that the wave function of a system can be measured on a single system fails to establish the key point and that what they demonstrate is the ontological significance of certain operators in the theory, with the wave function playing its usual epistemological role.