Consistent Sets Yield Contrary Inferences in Quantum Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2010-11-19 v2 Condensed Matter
High Energy Physics - Theory
Quantum Physics
Abstract
In the consistent histories formulation of quantum theory, the probabilistic predictions and retrodictions made from observed data depend on the choice of a consistent set. We show that this freedom allows the formalism to retrodict contrary propositions which correspond to orthogonal commuting projections and which each have probability one. We also show that the formalism makes contrary probability one predictions when applied to Gell-Mann and Hartle's generalised time-neutral quantum mechanics.
Cite
@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9604012,
title = {Consistent Sets Yield Contrary Inferences in Quantum Theory},
author = {Adrian Kent},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9604012},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
10 pages, TeX with harvmac. Revised version, with extended discussion and references added. To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett