Related papers: The Problem of the Observer in Physics
Decoherence is widely felt to have something to do with the quantum measurement problem, but getting clear on just what is made difficult by the fact that the "measurement problem", as traditionally presented in foundational and…
Founding our analysis on the Geneva-Brussels approach to the foundations of physics, we provide a clarification and classification of the key concept of observation. An entity can be observed with or without a scope. In the second case, the…
We present the quantum measurement problem as a serious physics problem. Serious because without a resolution, quantum theory is not complete, as it does not tell how one should - in principle - perform measurements. It is physical in the…
In a parametrized and constrained Hamiltonian system, an observable is an operator which commutes with all (first-class) constraints, including the super-Hamiltonian. The problem of the frozen formalism is to explain how dynamics is…
Although time is one of our most intuitive physical concepts, its understanding at the fundamental level is still an open question in physics. For instance, time in quantum mechanics and general relativity are two distinct and incompatible…
The entangled "measurement state" (MS), predicted by von Neumann to arise during quantum measurement, seems to display paradoxical properties such as multiple macroscopic outcomes. But analysis of interferometry experiments using entangled…
New rules are proposed to govern the collapse of a wave function during measurement. These rules apply with or without an observer in the system. They overcome an absurdity that was previous found when an objective state reduction is…
This is a work of hard physical philosophy, where Quantum Perspectivism is shown to function as both an interpretation of quantum mechanics and a physical model for understanding Nietzsche's perspectivism. This framework combines quantum…
The philosophy of science is a discipline concerning the metaphysical aspect of science. Recently, I proposed measurement theory, which is characterized as the metaphysical and linguistic interpretation of quantum mechanics. I assert that…
I propose that qualia are physical because they are directly observable, and revisit the contentious link between consciousness and quantum measurements from a new perspective -- one that does not rely on observers or wave function collapse…
A new ontological view of the quantum measurement processes is given, which has bearings on many broader issues in the foundations of quantum mechanics as well. In this scenario a quantum measurement is a non-equilibrium phase transition in…
By imposing system-observer symmetry on the von Neumann description of measurement, it is shown that the quantum measurement problem is structurally equivalent to a familiar reverse-engineering problem: that of describing the behavior of an…
In the orthodox language of Quantum Mechanics the observer occupies a central position and the only "real events" are the measuring results. We argue here that this narrow view is not forced upon us by the lessons of Quantum Physics. An…
The quantum theory of measurement has been a matter of debate for over eighty years. Most of the discussion has focused on theoretical issues with the consequence that operational prescriptions, which are integral to experimental physics,…
The von Neumann interaction between a particle and an apparatus has been considered in the measurement of the position of a particle when the interaction lasts for a finite amount of time. When the measurement has finite duration, both the…
Many attempts have been made to characterise and solve the infamous measurement problem of quantum mechanics by advocating, implicitly or explicitly, different realist perspectives. As a result, we are still uncertain where this problem and…
Despite the extraordinary successes the two great bastions of $20^{th}$ century science (Quantum Theory and General Relativity) are troubled with serious conceptual and mathematical difficulties. As a result, further growth of fundamental…
In this paper, I attempt a personal account of my understanding of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, which has been largely in the tradition of the Copenhagen interpretation. I assume that (i) the quantum state is a…
It is shown that the classical book by von Neumann proposing dynamics of measured systems with "reduction (or collapse) of system's wave packet" contains also hints how to avoid this discontinuity in time evolution of the measured system…
In this second paper, we develop the full mathematical structure of the algebra of the pseudo-observables, in order to solve the quantum measurement problem. Quantum state vectors are recovered but as auxiliary pseudo-observables storing…