Is the quantum wave function a real object or a mathematical tool?

[selfsimilar]

When speaking about reality as a concept, I like to keep in mind the first few chapters of Feynman's Lectures. Here he talks about a flat table. About as real as you can get, right?. But let's zoom in. What we find is that table particles evaporate and are replaced by air particles. Where the table even starts is uncertain, let alone if it's flat. That's why, in physics, we don't pin concepts like that down precisely, because they've proven problematic. We use it in a colloquial common-sense way. The wisest words I have heard on it are from physicist Victor Stenger: reality kicks back.

Thanks
Bill

I agree. That is the sense I was talking about, nothing controversial. You can complicate it like what is mass but mass is equivalent to energy, what is energy( calculational accounting tool!) ...etc.