Related papers: Wigner's convoluted friends
In 1935, in a paper entitled "Can quantum-mechanical description of reality be considered complete?", Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) formulated an apparent paradox of quantum theory. They considered two quantum systems that were…
One of the reasons for the heated debates around the interpretations of quantum theory is a simple confusion between the notions of formalism versus interpretation. In this note, we make a clear distinction between them and show that there…
It is shown that the absence of an objective existence of the results of quantum measurements cannot be proved by known experiments. There are also general arguments confirming this conclusion.
In a recent paper [PRE 62, 4665 (2000)] (quant-ph/0203102) Manfredi and Feix proposed an alternative definition of quantum entropy based on Wigner phase-space distribution functions and discussed its properties. They proposed also some…
The entangled quantum states play a key role in quantum information. The association of the quantum state vector with each individual physical system in an attributive way is a source of many false paradoxes and inconsistencies. The…
The disputed question of uncertainty relations (UR) on a circle is regarded as a particular element of a more general problem which refers to the quantum description of angular observables $L_z$ and $\phi$. The improvised $L_z-\phi$ UR are…
This work discloses some inconsistencies of quantum mechanics (QM) in two different contexts. On the one hand the equivalence principle in his two formulations is the starting point of all gravitational theories; yet there is no way to make…
We introduce a software package that allows users to design and run simulations of thought experiments in quantum theory. In particular, it covers cases where several reasoning agents are modelled as quantum systems, such as Wigner's friend…
The notion of probability plays a crucial role in quantum mechanics. It appears in quantum mechanics as the Born rule. In modern mathematics which describes quantum mechanics, however, probability theory means nothing other than measure…
We show that it is possible to explain the quantum measurement process within the framework of quantum mechanics without any additional postulates. The key concept of the theory is decoherence, which appears as an inherent characteristic of…
One of the most fundamental phenomena of quantum physics is entanglement. It describes an inseparable connection between quantum systems, and properties thereof. In a quantum mechanical description even systems far apart from each other can…
A rigorous microscopic theory for the description of quantum-transport phenomena in systems with open boundaries is proposed. We shall show that the application of the conventional Wigner-function formalism to this problem leads to…
Wigner Friend scenarios -- in which an external agent describes quantum mechanically a laboratory in which a Friend is making a measurement -- give rise to possible inconsistencies due to the ambiguous character of quantum measurements. In…
I argue that the Oxford school Everett interpretation is internally incoherent, because we cannot claim that in an Everettian universe the kinds of reasoning we have used to arrive at our beliefs about quantum mechanics would lead us to…
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…
Bohr's interpretation of quantum mechanics has been criticized as incoherent and opportunistic, and based on doubtful philosophical premises. If so Bohr's influence, in the pre-war period of 1927-1939, is the harder to explain, and the…
In this paper, we show that Quantum Mechanics does not admit ontological models, in the sense that the quantum state of a system cannot correspond to a set of physical states representing the independent reality of the system. We show, via…
The quantum theory (QT) and new stochastic approaches have no deterministic prediction for a single measurement or for a single time -series of events observed for a trapped ion, electron or any other individual physical system. The…
It is shown that in the Rovelli relational interpretation of quantum mechanics, in which the notion of absolute or observer independent state is rejected, the conclusion of the ordinary EPR argument turns out to be frame-dependent, provided…
Human agents happen to judge that a conjunction of two terms is more probable than one of the terms, in contradiction with the rules of classical probabilities---this is the conjunction fallacy. One of the most discussed accounts of this…