Related papers: The Problem of the Observer in Physics
The term "measurement" in quantum theory (as well as in other physical theories) is ambiguous: It is used to describe both an experience - e.g., an observation in an experiment - and an interaction with the system under scrutiny. If doing…
The problem of measurement in quantum mechanics is reanalyzed within a general, strictly probabilistic framework (without reduction postulate). Based on a novel comprehensive definition of measurement the natural emergence of objective…
This paper has been withdrawn by the author. In this short paper I will put in evidence a problem nested in Ozawa's effort to block von Neumann's chains and in his attributing the wave-collapse to a interaction between systems. This…
This paper has been withdrawn by the author. In this paper I present some reasons to adopt an holistic point of wiev, eliminating a boundary subject/object in the measurement. I review shortly Everett's and Cramer's positions, casting light…
Endeavoring to formulate an exhaustive solution to the measurement problem in view of the theory of decoherence leads to a better understanding of the status of the collapse and of the emergence of classicality, thanks to a precise…
The theory of measurement is employed to elucidate the physical basis of general relativity. For measurements involving phenomena with intrinsic length or time scales, such scales must in general be negligible compared to the (translational…
A goal of most interpretations of quantum mechanics is to avoid the apparent intrusion of the observer into the measurement process. Such intrusion is usually seen to arise because observation somehow selects a single actuality from among…
The question of what should be meant by a measurement is tackled from a mathematical perspective whose physical interpretation is that a measurement is a fundamental process via which a finite amount of classical information is produced.…
Measurement theory is the cornerstone of science, but no equivalent theory underpins the huge volumes of non-numerical data now being generated. In this study, we show that replacing numbers with alternative mathematical models, such as…
Measurements play a crucial role in doing physics: Their results provide the basis on which we adopt or reject physical theories. In this note, we examine the effect of subjecting measurements themselves to our experience. We require that…
It is argued that Feynman's rules for evaluating probabilities, combined with von Neumann's principle of psycho-physical parallelism, help avoid inconsistencies, often associated with quantum theory. The former allows one to assign…
In these notes, based on lectures given as part of the Les Houches summer school on Quantum Optics and Nanophotonics in August, 2013, I have tried to give a brief survey of some important approaches and modern tendencies in quantum…
Several theories have been advanced recently which appear to offer a resolution to that portion of the measurement problem which previously dealt with a possible reduction of the state vector in a subjective fashion by the brain, mind or…
Post-inflationary boundary conditions are essential to the existence of our highly structured universe, and these can only come about through quantum mechanical state reductions - i.e., through measurements. The choice is between: An…
The measurement problem is to explain why a system which is in a linear combination of states appears, upon measurement, to be in just one of those states. The solution given here is to first show that if one assumes linear, unitary, no…
Recently, it has been stated that single-world interpretations of quantum theory are logically inconsistent. The claim is derived from contradicting statements of agents in a setup combining two Wigner's-friend experiments. Those statements…
I show that the quantum measurement problem can be understood if the measurement is seen as a ``speech act'' in the sense of modern language theory. The reduction of the state vector is in this perspective an intersubjectice -- or better…
The problem of measurement is often considered as an inconsistency inside the quantum formalism. Many attempts to solve (or to dissolve) it have been made since the inception of quantum mechanics. The form of these attempts depends on the…
A new, realist interpretation of the quantum measurement processes is given. In this scenario a quantum measurement is a non-equilibrium phase transition in a ``resonant cavity'' formed by the entire physical universe including all its…
A variant of the von Neumann-Wigner Interpretation is proposed. It does not make use of the familiar language of wave functions and observers. Instead it pictures the state of the physical world as a vector in a Fock space and, therefore…