English

Wigner's friend, Feynman's paths and material records

Quantum Physics 2020-09-14 v1

Abstract

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 making a measurement. Here we briefly review why this \e{Wigner Friend scenario} has been taken to require the introduction of the Observer's consciousness, or alternatively to show the inconsistency of quantum measurement theory. We will argue that quantum theory can consistently leave observers outside its narrative, by making only minimal assumptions about how the information about the observed results is stored in material records.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2009.01113,
  title  = {Wigner's friend, Feynman's paths and material records},
  author = {A. Matzkin and D. Sokolovski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2009.01113},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

7 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T18:16:12.373Z