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The decoherence interpretation of quantum measurements is applied to Wigner's friend experiments. A framework in which all the experimental outcomes arise from unitary evolutions is proposed. Within it, a measurement is not completed until…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2020-03-25 Armando Relaño

The Wigner's friend type of thought experiments manifest the conceptual challenge on how different observers can have consistent descriptions of a quantum measurement event. In this paper, we analyze the extended version of Wigner's friend…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-11-12 Jianhao M. Yang

The scientific method relies on facts, established through repeated measurements and agreed upon universally, independently of who observed them. In quantum mechanics, the objectivity of observations is not so clear, most dramatically…

Lawrence et al. have presented an argument purporting to show that "relative facts do not exist" and, consequently, "Relational Quantum Mechanics is incompatible with quantum mechanics". The argument is based on a GHZ-like contradiction…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-11-23 Eric G. Cavalcanti , Andrea Di Biagio , Carlo Rovelli

Wigner's Friend-type paradoxes challenge the assumption that events are absolute -- that when we measure a system, we obtain a single result, which is not relative to anything or anyone else. These paradoxes highlight the tension between…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-04-23 Sumit Mukherjee , Jonte R. Hance

The notion of measurements is central for many debates in quantum mechanics. One critical point is whether a measurement can be regarded as an absolute event, giving the same result for any observer in an irreversible manner. Using ideas…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-02-20 Zhen-Peng Xu , Jonathan Steinberg , H. Chau Nguyen , Otfried Gühne

The notorious quantum measurement problem brings out the difficulty to reconcile two quantum postulates: the unitary evolution of closed quantum systems and the wave-function collapse after a measurement. This problematics is particularly…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-08-24 George Moreno , Ranieri Nery , Cristhiano Duarte , Rafael Chaves

The Wigner's friend experiment is a thought experiment in which a so-called superobserver (Wigner) observes another observer (the friend) who has performed a quantum measurement on a physical system. In this setup Wigner treats the friend,…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2024-09-25 Veronika Baumann , Časlav Brukner

We argue that Wigner's friend thought experiment does not support observer dependence of quantum states. An analysis in terms of history vectors suggests that quantum collapse is to be understood as collapse of histories rather than…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-06-09 Leonardo Castellani

We show that it is impossible to prove that the outcome of a quantum measurement is random.

Quantum Physics · Physics 2010-08-31 Caroline Rogers

The place and role of an Observer in quantum mechanics has been a subject of an ongoing debate since the theory's inception. Wigner brought this question to the fore in a celebrated scenario in which a super-Observer observes a Friend…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2020-09-14 A. Matzkin , D. Sokolovski

Measurement is an important scientific activity. In most of science, including classical physics, is may be understood as a way of finding out about the physical world and representing the results numerically. No-go theorems show that…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-05-18 Richard Healey

Exploiting the tension between the two dynamics of quantum theory (QT) in the Wigner's Friend thought experiment, we point out that the standard QT leads to inconsistency in observed probabilities of measurement outcomes between two…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-03-07 Shubhayan Sarkar , Debashis Saha

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…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2016-11-04 Veronika Baumann , Arne Hansen , Stefan Wolf

Two recent, prominent theorems--the "no-go theorem for observer-independent facts" and the "Local Friendliness no-go theorem"--employ so-called extended Wigner's friend scenarios to try to impose novel, non-trivial constraints on the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-06-02 E. Okon

Wigner-friend scenarios -- in which external agents describe a closed laboratory containing a friend making a measurement -- highlight the difficulties inherent to quantum theory when accounting for measurements. In non-relativistic…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2024-09-13 J. Allam , A. Matzkin

Wigner's friend paradoxes highlight contradictions between measurements made by Friends inside a laboratory and superobservers outside a laboratory, who have access to an entangled state of the measurement apparatus. The contradictions lead…

What is fundamentally quantum? We argue that most of the features, problems, and paradoxes -- such as the measurement problem, the Wigner's friend paradox and its proposed solutions, single particle nonlocality, and no-cloning -- allegedly…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-04-09 Flavio Del Santo , Nicolas Gisin

The description of Wigner-friend scenarios -- in which external agents describe a closed laboratory containing a friend making a measurement -- remains problematic due to the ambiguous nature of quantum measurements. One option is to…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-10-16 J. Allam , A. Matzkin

The Wigner's Friend thought experiment stands as one of the most intellectually provocative and challenging conceptual puzzles in quantum mechanics. It compels us to confront profound questions concerning the fundamental nature of reality,…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-07-25 Herve Zwirn