Self-locating Uncertainty and the Origin of Probability in Everettian Quantum Mechanics
@article{Sebens2018SelflocatingUA, title={Self-locating Uncertainty and the Origin of Probability in Everettian Quantum Mechanics}, author={Charles T. Sebens and S. Carroll}, journal={The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science}, year={2018}, volume={69}, pages={25 - 74} }
A longstanding issue in attempts to understand the Everett (many-worlds) approach to quantum mechanics is the origin of the Born rule: why is the probability given by the square of the amplitude? Following Vaidman, we note that observers are in a position of self-locating uncertainty during the period between the branches of the wave function splitting via decoherence and the observer registering the outcome of the measurement. In this period, it is tempting to regard each branch as…
84 Citations
Branch-counting in the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics
- PhysicsProceedings of the Royal Society A
- 2021
A defence is offered of a version of the branch-counting rule in the Everett interpretation (otherwise known as many worlds interpretation) of quantum mechanics that both depends on the state and is…
In defence of the self-location uncertainty account of probability in the many-worlds interpretation
- PhilosophyStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
- 2019
Quantum theory of the classical: quantum jumps, Born’s Rule and objective classical reality via quantum Darwinism
- PhysicsPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
- 2018
Three insights into the transition from quantum to classical that are based on the recognition of the role of the environment are described, including the derivation of preferred sets of states that help to define what exists—the authors' everyday classical reality.
A Phenomenological Reading of the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
- Physics
- 2020
The Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics, the rendition of quantum mechanics discovered by theoretical physicist, Hugh Everett III, postulates a radical rendition of reality. MWI is…
Everett’s Multiverse and the World as Wavefunction
- PhysicsQuantum Reports
- 2019
Everett suggested that there’s no such thing as wavefunction collapse. He hypothesized that for an idealized spin measurement the apparatus evolves into a superposition on the pointer basis of two…
Time's arrow and self‐locating probability
- PhilosophyPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research
- 2021
One of the most difficult problems in the foundations of physics is what gives rise to the arrow of time. Since the fundamental dynamical laws of physics are (essentially) symmetric in time, the…
Decoherence and its Role in Interpretations of Quantum Physics
- Philosophy, Physics
- 2019
It is suggested that the best way to justify the use of the very strong conception of decoherence is by appealing directly to its indispensability to an otherwise very attractive interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Everettian quantum mechanics and physical probability: Against the principle of “State Supervenience”
- Philosophy
- 2016
Fundamentality and Levels in Everettian Quantum Mechanics
- Philosophy
- 2021
Distinctions in fundamentality between different levels of description are central to the viability of contemporary decoherence-based Everettian quantum mechanics (EQM). This approach to quantum…
Some remarks on the mathematical structure of the multiverse
- Physics
- 2016
The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum entanglement experiments is at best incomplete, since the intermediate state induced by collapse of the wave function apparently depends upon the inertial…
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 103 REFERENCES
Probabilities from entanglement , Born ’ s rule
- Physics
- 2005
I show how probabilities arise in quantum physics by exploring the implications of environment-assisted invarianceor envariance, a recently discovered symmetry exhibited by entangled quantum systems.…
Objective Probability in Everettian Quantum Mechanics
- PhilosophyThe British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
- 2013
David Wallace has given a decision-theoretic argument for the Born Rule in the context of Everettian quantum mechanics (EQM). This approach promises to resolve some long-standing problems with…
Everettian quantum mechanics without branching time
- PhilosophySynthese
- 2011
This paper assesses the prospects for combining contemporary Everettian quantum mechanics with branching-time semantics in the tradition of Kripke, Prior, Thomason and Belnap, and concludes by discussing and rejecting an alternative possible motivation for branching time.
The Probability Problem in Everettian Quantum Mechanics Persists
- PhilosophyThe British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
- 2015
Everettian quantum mechanics (EQM) results in ‘multiple, emergent, branching quasi-classical realities’ (Wallace [2012]). The possible outcomes of measurement as per ‘orthodox’ quantum mechanics are,…
The Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
- Physics
- 2015
This volume contains Dr. Everett's short paper from 1957, "'Relative State' Formulation of Quantum Mechanics," and a far longer exposition of his interpretation, entitled "The Theory of the Universal Wave Function," never before published.
Probability in the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
- Physics
- 2012
It is argued that, although in the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics there is no “probability” for an outcome of a quantum experiment in the usual sense, we can understand why we have…
Everett and evidence
- Philosophy, Physics
- 2008
Much of the evidence for quantum mechanics is statistical in nature. Relative frequency data summarizing the results of repeated experiments is compared to probabilities calculated from the theory;…
Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical
- Physics
- 2003
as quantum engineering. In the past two decades it has become increasingly clear that many (perhaps all) of the symptoms of classicality can be induced in quantum systems by their environments. Thus…
Does it Make Sense to Speak of Self-Locating Uncertainty in the Universal Wave Function? Remarks on Sebens and Carroll
- Philosophy
- 2014
Following a proposal of Vaidman (Int Stud Philos Sci 12:245–261, 1998) (in: Zalta EN (ed) The Stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy, 2014) (in: Ben-Menahem Y, Hemmo M (ed) The probable and the…
Environment-induced superselection rules
- Physics
- 1982
We show how the correlations of a quantum system with other quantum systems may cause one of its observables to behave in a classical manner. In particular, "reduction of the wave packet," postulated…