Quantum assembly semantics: The fallacious lingo of occupation numbers

Abstract

The usual heuristic description of quantum mechanical assemblies features so-called “occupation numbers” interpreted quite literally. This essay critically compares that point of view with a more rigorous understanding of composite systems based upon a principal lesson of Einstein's paradox and Bell's inequality, viz., that it is fallacious to regard a subsystem as possessing or “occupying” any state whatever.