Psi-Onticity, Contextuality and Realism in Everettian Quantum Mechanics

This article alleges that a pervasive contemporary species of Everettian quantum mechanics (EQM) fails to qualify as a consistent realist interpretation. It notes the lack of consensus amongst proponents of EQM as to questions central to its claim to realism. It argues nonetheless that four commitments can be attributed to the greater part of these accounts: Realism, Ontic Constituency, Universal Onticity and Weak Noncontextuality. It provides definitions of these commitments and then submits three examples of experimental configurations in which they appear to yield a contradiction. It concludes that the most tenable means by which to resolve this contradiction involves repudiating this doctrine of Realism within these formulations of EQM.