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A theory of everything should not only tell us the laws for matter, gravity, and possibly boundary condition for the universe. In addition, it should specify the relation between theory and experience. Here I argue for a minimal…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-06-21 Ding Jia

An experiment by Proietti {\it et al} purporting to instantiate the `Wigner's Friend' thought experiment is discussed. It is pointed out that the stated implications of the experiment regarding the alleged irreconcilability of facts…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-03-30 R. E. Kastner

We take a fresh look at Wigner's Friend thought-experiment and some of its more recent variants and extensions, such as the Frauchiger-Renner (FR) Paradox. We discuss various solutions proposed in the literature, focusing on a few…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2024-04-09 Alexandru Baltag , Sonja Smets

Recent extended formulations of the Wigner's friend thought experiment throw the measurement problem of quantum mechanics into sharper relief. Here I respond to an invitation by Renner to provide a consistent and concrete set of rules for…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2021-07-07 Joseph M. Renes

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.

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-05-28 Alexander Belinsky

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 quantum measurement problem can be regarded as the tension between the two alternative dynamics prescribed by quantum mechanics: the unitary evolution of the wave function and the state-update rule (or "collapse") at the instant a…

The famous Wigner's friend experiment considers an observer -- the friend -- and a superobserver -- Wigner -- who treats the friend as a quantum system and her interaction with other quantum systems as unitary dynamics. This is at odds with…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-10-10 Veronika Baumann

Wigner's friend experiment and its modern extensions display the ambiguity of the quantum mechanical description regarding the assignment of quantum states. While the friend applies the state-update rule to the system upon observing an…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-10-22 Flavio Del Santo , Gonzalo Manzano , Caslav Brukner

Quantum mechanics has been subject to logical scrutiny since its inception. The behavior of quantum systems, which are fundamentally dissimilar from classical systems, often appears to point to a logical inconsistency in quantum mechanics,…

Mathematical Physics · Physics 2026-04-01 Felipe Dilho Alves , João Carlos Alves Barata

The concept of an isolated system, and Frauchiger and Renner's extended `Wigner's friend' scenario are discussed. It is argued that: (i) it is questionable whether the approximation of the isolated system is valid when measurement-like…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-05-12 Andrew Steane

"Wigner's friend" refers to a quantum process of which different observers, following the rules of quantum mechanics, give contradictory descriptions. Lostaglio and Bowles have recently claimed to describe a classical system showing the…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-01-12 Anthony Sudbery

It is commonly thought that observers in distinct branches of an Everettian multiverse cannot communicate without violating the linearity of quantum theory. Here we show a counterexample, demonstrating that inter-branch communication is in…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2026-04-28 Maria Violaris

Church's hypothesis and Godel's theorem may provide constraints on mental processes.As a relief quantum entanglement may lead to a definite proposal as regards the nature of reality and how much of it we are able to know and how do we know…

General Physics · Physics 2007-05-23 R. Chakraborty , I. Mitra

I correct two misapprehensions, one historical and one conceptual, in the recent literature on extensions of the Wigner's Friend thought-experiment. Perhaps fittingly, both concern the accurate description of some quantum physicists'…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2019-07-18 Blake C. Stacey

The thought experiment called Wigner's Friend has experienced a renewal of interest for interrogating the meaning of intersubjectivity and objectivity in quantum mechanics. These new inquiries extend to investigations at the intersection of…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-08-26 Gino Elia , Jennifer Carter , Robert Crease

Popper's original thought experiment probed some fundamental and subtle rules of quantum mechanics. Two experiments have directly and indirectly tested Popper's hypothesis, but they seem to give contrasting results. The equations governing…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2012-07-10 Chris D. Richardson , Jonathan P. Dowling

In this short paper a new thought experiment has been introduced to illustrate the famous Heisenberg's uncertainty principle based on Otto-Wiener's experiment (1890) associated with standing light waves. This illustration is quite easy as…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2014-10-17 Tapas Das

In his famous thought experiment, Wigner assigns an entangled state to the composite quantum system made up of Wigner's friend and her observed system. While the two of them have different accounts of the process, each Wigner and his friend…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2018-06-05 Caslav Brukner

In a publication (Nature Comm. 3711, 9 (2018)), Daniela Frauchiger and Renato Renner used a Wigner/friend gedanken experiment to argue that quantum mechanics cannot describe complex systems involving measuring agents. They were able to…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-09-20 Stuart Samuel