English

The Quantum Agreement Theorem

Quantum Physics 2026-03-20 v2

Abstract

We formulate and prove an Agreement Theorem for quantum mechanics (QM), describing when two agents, represented by separate laboratories, can or cannot maintain differing probability estimates of a shared quantum property of interest. Building on the classical framework (Aumann, 1976), we define the modality of ``common certainty" through a hierarchy of certainty operators acting on each agent's Hilbert space. In the commuting case -- when all measurements and event projectors commute -- common certainty leads to equality of the agents' conditional probabilities, recovering a QM analog of the classical theorem. By contrast, when non-commuting operators are allowed, the certainty recursion can stabilize with different probabilities. This yields common certainty of disagreement (CCD) as a distinctive QM phenomenon. We show that agreement will nevertheless re-emerge if measurement outcomes are recorded in a classical register. We also establish an impossibility result stating that QM forbids a scenario where one agent is certain that a property of interest occurs, and is also certain that the other agent is certain that the property does not occur. In this sense, QM admits non-classical disagreement, but disagreement is still bounded in a disciplined way. We argue that our analysis offers a rigorous approach to the longstanding issue of how to understand intersubjectivity across agents in QM.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.21258,
  title  = {The Quantum Agreement Theorem},
  author = {María García Díaz and Adam Brandenburger and Giannicola Scarpa},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.21258},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

19 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables

R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:55:57.499Z