Related papers: Objective vs Observer Measurements
Selection of the preferred classical set of states in the process of decoherence -- so important for cosmological considerations -- is discussed with an emphasis on the role of information loss and entropy. {\it Persistence of correlations}…
The indeterminism of quantum mechanics generally permits the independent specification of both an initial and a final condition on the state. Quantum pre-and-post-selection of states opens up a new, experimentally testable, sector of…
Weak measurements offer new insights into the behavior of quantum systems. Combined with post-selection, quantum mechanics predicts a range of new experimentally testable phenomena. In this paper I consider weak measurements performed on…
The measurement problem remains unaddressed in modern physics, with an array of proposed solutions but as of yet no agreed resolution. In this paper, we examine measurement using the Q-based, objective-field model for quantum mechanics.…
Many observers can simultaneously measure different parts of an environment of a quantum system in order to find out its state. To study this problem we generalize the formalism of conditional master equations to the multiple observer case.…
In order to claim that one has experimentally tested whether a noncontextual ontological model could underlie certain measurement statistics in quantum theory, it is necessary to have a notion of noncontextuality that applies to unsharp…
We discuss the possibility that the inflationary paradigm, undoubtfully today's best framework to understand all the present cosmological data, may still have some viable challengers. The underlying idea for such discussions is that…
Two thought experiments are analyzed, revealing that the quantum state of the universe does not contain definitive evidence of the wavefunction collapse. The first thought experiment shows that unitary quantum evolution alone can account…
The concept of {\em complexity} (as a quantity) has been plagued by numerous contradictory and confusing definitions. By explicitly recognising a role for the observer of a system, an observer that attaches meaning to data about the system,…
Endeavoring to formulate an exhaustive solution to the measurement problem in view of the theory of decoherence leads to a better understanding of the status of the collapse and of the emergence of classicality, thanks to a precise…
The discovery of a small cosmological constant has stimulated interest in the measure problem. One should expect to be a typical observer, but defining such a thing is difficult in the vastness of an eternally inflating universe. We propose…
Current quantum orthodoxy claims that the statistical collapse of the wave-function arises from the interaction of the measuring instrument with its environment through the phenomenon known as environment induced decoherence. Here it is…
It is usually assumed that the quantum state is sufficient for deducing all probabilities for a system. This may be true when there is a single observer, but it is not true in a universe large enough that there are many copies of an…
Observers are well known in control theory. Originally designed to estimate the hidden states of dynamical systems given some measurements, the observers scope has been recently extended to the estimation of some unknowns, for systems…
A model of quantum measurement is proposed, which aims to describe statistical mechanical aspects of this phenomenon, starting from a purely Hamiltonian formulation. The macroscopic measurement apparatus is modeled as an ideal Bose gas, the…
We explain the collapse of the wavefunction with the notion that, in a measurement, the system observed nucleates a first order phase transition in the measuring device. The possible final states differ by the values of macroscopic…
We argue that the words "objectivity" and "subjectivity" in statistics discourse are used in a mostly unhelpful way, and we propose to replace each of them with broader collections of attributes, with objectivity replaced by transparency,…
It is widely known that `collapse of the wave function' on a quantum system A may be brought about by an interaction with another quantum system B. We will prove that this is not just a possible, but a necessary consequence of information…
Even when completely and consistently formulated, a fundamental theory of physics and cosmological boundary conditions may not give unambiguous and unique predictions for the universe we observe; indeed inflation, string/M theory, and…
A many-body atomic system coupled to quantized light is subject to weak measurement. Instead of coupling light to the on-site density, we consider the quantum backaction due to the measurement of matter-phase-related variables such as…