Quantum Counterfactuals: Interaction-Free Measurements and Classical Logic’s Constraints

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to carry out a critical analysis of the uses of the material conditionals employed to represent the counterfactual detections taking place inside Elitzur-Vaidman quantum bomb detectors in so-called quantum interaction free measurements (IFMs). We provide an exhaustive philosophical study of this classical approach focusing on its limitations. To do so, we formulate atomic propositions corresponding to the observable events of the experiments, to overcome the shortcomings of the conditional expression. Finally, we show that the standard definition of counterfactuality in quantum contexts based on classical logic is epistemologically too limited, presenting quantum logics as the most promising possible approach to address this type of quantum counterfactuality.