Related papers: Birds, Frogs, and the Measurement Problem
The use of real clocks and measuring rods in quantum mechanics implies a natural loss of unitarity in the description of the theory. We briefly review this point and then discuss the implications it has for the measurement problem in…
Recent years have witnessed a controversy over Heisenberg's famous error-disturbance relation. Here we resolve the conflict by way of an analysis of the possible conceptualizations of measurement error and disturbance in quantum mechanics.…
In light of a recent reformulation of Bell's theorem from causal principles by Howard Wiseman and the author, I argue that the conflict between quantum theory and relativity brought up by Bell's work can be softened by a revision of our…
Quantum mechanics under the Copenhagen interpretation is one of the most experimentally well verified formalisms. However, it is known that the interpretation makes explicit reference to external observation or "measurement." One says that…
The Frauchiger-Renner Paradox is an extension of paradoxes based on the 'Problem of Measurement,' such as Schrodinger's Cat and Wigner's Friend. All of these paradoxes stem from assuming that quantum theory has only unitary (linear)…
In a recent note David Mermin attributed the idea that wave function collapse is a physical process to a misunderstanding of probability and the role it plays in quantum mechanics. There are, however, further misconceptions at play, some of…
We still lack any consensus about what one is actually talking about as one uses quantum mechanics. There is a gap between the abstract terms in which the theory is couched and the phenomena the theory enables each of us to account for so…
Measurement uncertainty and experimental error are important concepts taught in undergraduate physics laboratories. Although student ideas about error and uncertainty in introductory classical mechanics lab experiments have been studied…
This paper is an introduction to the eleven works of the special issue on Quantum and Classical Frontiers of Noise. The weather, and its butterfly effect, is the typical example that explain why many natural phenomena are, in fact, not…
The information loss paradox is often presented as an unavoidable consequence of well-established physics. However, in order for a genuine paradox to ensue, not-trivial assumptions about, e.g., quantum effects on spacetime, are necessary.…
Environment-induced decoherence and superselection have been a subject of intensive research over the past two decades, yet their implications for the foundational problems of quantum mechanics, most notably the quantum measurement problem,…
Niels Bohr proposed that the outcome of the measurement becomes objective and real, and, hence, classical, when its results can be communicated by classical means. In this work we revisit Bohr's postulate using modern tools from the quantum…
The quantum theory of de Broglie and Bohm solves the measurement problem, but the hypothetical corpuscles play no role in the argument. The solution finds a more natural home in the Everett interpretation.
It is shown that any theory that has certain properties has a measurement problem, in the sense that it makes predictions that are incompatible with measurement outcomes being absolute (that is, unique and non-relational). These properties…
The Quantum Measurement Problem is arguably one of the most debated issues in the philosophy of Quantum Mechanics, since it represents not only a technical difficulty for the standard formulation of the theory, but also a source of…
The underlying physics of quantum mechanics has been discussed for decades without an agreed resolution to many questions. The measurement problem, wave function collapse and entangled states are mired in complexity and the difficulty of…
The von Neumann attitude on such a deep interpretational question as the role of a human observer in order for the quantum description of measurement to be consistent has been long misrepresented. The large majority of the subsequent…
In the hidden measurement formalism that we develop in Brussels we explain the quantum structure as due to the presence of two effects, (a) a real change of state of the system under influence of the measurement and, (b) a lack of knowledge…
I criticize the widely-defended view that the quantum measurement problem is an example of underdetermination of theory by evidence: more specifically, the view that the unmodified, unitary quantum formalism (interpreted following Everett)…
In two articles, the authors claim that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle limits the precision of simultaneous measurements of the position and velocity of a particle and refer to experimental evidence that supports their claim. It is…