Davide Romano

I am currently a Researcher (RTDa) at the Department of Human Sciences of the University of Verona in Italy. Before coming to Verona, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institut Néel-CNRS at the Université Grenoble Alpes (2024-2025), a FCT junior researcher at the Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon (2020-2023) and an Ernst Mach postdoctoral scholar at the University of Salzburg (2018-19). I have obtained my PhD in philosophy from the University of Lausanne (2016), with a dissertation on the classical limit in the de Broglie—Bohm theory. My research is in the philosophy and foundations of quantum mechanics. with a special interest in the realist interpretations of quantum mechanics, the nature of the wave function, decoherence theory and the classical limit of quantum mechanics.

News: My first monograph in Italian is out: La Filosofia della Meccanica Quantistica

This is a short textbook on the philosophy of standard quantum mechanics. After introducing the formalism of the theory, the book analyzes some paradigmatic examples (two-slit experiment, Schrödinger's cat paradox) and the philosophical problems associated to the standard interpretation, such as the measurement problem and the quantum-to-classical transition. The book also includes a fresh analysis of the uncertainty principle, suggesting an epistemic/statistic rather than ontological reading. The final chapter is dedicated to decoherence theory and its relation with the classical limit of quantum mechanics.  

Classical limit of quantum mechanics

How does classical mechanics emerge from quantum mechanics under macroscopic conditions? This question-known as the classical limit problem-is still unanswered in many points. Even though environmental decoherence draws a line between the two theories, this line is often interrupted and does not originate a clear picture of emergent classical objects.

In my research I explored the the quantum-to-classical transition in different interpretations of quantum mechanics:

• Why decoherence theory in standard quantum mechanics is not enough? I answered this question here: The unreasonable effectiveness of decoherence, in V. Allori (ed.): Quantum Mechanics and Fundamentality, Springer, 2022.

• A solution for the classical limit in Bohm's theory has been proposed here: A decoherence-based approach to the classical limit in Bohm's theory, Foundations of Physics, 2023. 

The wave function in quantum mechanics

I have defended the multi-field approach in two papers:

•  The wave-function as a multi-field (with M. Hubert), European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 2018 . [preprint]

• Multi-field and Bohm’s theory, Synthese, 2021. [preprint] 

Quantum mechanics and Bohm's theory

There is a subtle relation between quantum mechanics and Bohm's theory. While it is generally claimed that Bohm's theory adds extra variables or entities (particles) to standard quantum mechanics, at a closer look these variables and entities are already included in the standard formalism. Bohm's theory does not add new variables, but interprets the old variables in a new/realist way. I have developed this thesis here: On the alleged extra-structures of quantum mechanics