Related papers: Negative Observations in Quantum Mechanics
Generally a central role has been assigned to an unavoidable physical interaction between the measuring instrument and the physical entity measured in the change in the wave function that often occurs in measurement in quantum mechanics. A…
It is argued that Feynman's rules for evaluating probabilities, combined with von Neumann's principle of psycho-physical parallelism, help avoid inconsistencies, often associated with quantum theory. The former allows one to assign…
A goal of most interpretations of quantum mechanics is to avoid the apparent intrusion of the observer into the measurement process. Such intrusion is usually seen to arise because observation somehow selects a single actuality from among…
Epistemological consequences of quantum nonlocality (entanglement) are discussed under the assumption of a universally valid Schr\"odinger equation in the absence of hidden variables. This leads inevitably to a {\it many-minds…
The problem of the observer in quantum mechanics is getting new human content. The paradox of Wigner's friend and its extended versions have observers who not only observe quantum phenomena, but communicate, have memories and even…
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…
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…
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…
The measurement problem and the role of observers have plagued quantum mechanics since its conception. Attempts to resolve these have introduced anthropomorphic or non-realist notions into physics. A shift of perspective based upon process…
In 1929 Szilard pointed out that the physics of the observer may play a role in the analysis of experiments. The same year, Bohr pointed out that complementarity appears to arise naturally in psychology where both the objects of perception…
A framework for a quantum mechanical information theory is introduced that is based entirely on density operators, and gives rise to a unified description of classical correlation and quantum entanglement. Unlike in classical (Shannon)…
Schr\"odinger's cat appears to have been harassed in a chamber during the past eighty years or so by interpreting the role of the observer as a person, who sets an experiment and then observes results, may be after some time. The realist…
I suggest that the common unease with taking quantum mechanics as a fundamental description of nature (the "measurement problem") could derive from the use of an incorrect notion, as the unease with the Lorentz transformations before…
Since its inception, quantum theory has been the subject of fierce interpretive controversy, which persists to this day. Disputed topics include the basic ontology and dynamics of the theory, the role (if any) of measurement, the meaning of…
We start with a discussion of the use of mathematics to model the real world then justify the role of Hilbert space formalism for such modelling in the general context of quantum logic. Following this, the incompleteness of the…
To begin with, some of the conundrums concerning Quantum Mechanics and its interpretation(s) are recalled. Subsequently, a sketch of the "ETH-Approach to Quantum Mechanics" is presented. This approach yields a logically coherent quantum…
Recently a study of the first superposed mechanical quantum object ("machine") visible to the naked eye was published. However, as we show, it turns out that if the object would actually be observed, i.e. would interact with an optical…
Quantum mechanics is one of our most successful physical theories; its predictions agree with experimental observations to an extremely high accuracy. However, the bare formalism of quantum theory does not provide straightforward answers to…
The physical meaning of the operators is not reducible to the intrinsic relations of the quantum system, since unitary transformations can find other operators satisfying the exact same relations. The physical meaning is determined…
It is shown that two observers have mutually commuting observables if they are able to prepare in each subsector of their common state space some state exhibiting no mutual correlations. This result establishes a heretofore missing link…