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Summary Traditional formulations of quantum mechanics rely on an unanalysed concept of measurement. Quantum systems are treated as evolving via the unitary Schrodinger evolution, except when they are measured or observed; then, all components of the state are discarded except the one corresponding to the actual measurement result. The component which remains is then regarded as the new state of the system and again is evolved forwards according to the unitary evolution. The measurement problem is the problem of explaining why this two-stage procedure employing a primitive concept of measurement works so well.
Key works Bell 1987 contains a number of exceptionally clear discussions of the measurement problem. Bohr 1935 contains the first explicit claim that measurement plays a fundamental role in quantum theory.
Introductions Albert 1992
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  1. How to Make Sense of Quantum Mechanics : Fundamental Physical Theories and Primitive Ontology.Valia Allori - manuscript
    Quantum mechanics has always been regarded as, at best, puzzling, if not contradictory. The aim of the paper is to explore a particular approach to fundamental physical theories, the one based on the notion of primitive ontology. This approach, when applied to quantum mechanics, makes it a paradox-free theory.
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  2. The Stochastic-Quantum Theorem.Jacob A. Barandes - manuscript
    This paper introduces several new classes of mathematical structures that have close connections with physics and with the theory of dynamical systems. The most general of these structures, called generalized stochastic systems, collectively encompass many important kinds of stochastic processes, including Markov chains and random dynamical systems. This paper then states and proves a new theorem that establishes a precise correspondence between any generalized stochastic system and a unitarily evolving quantum system. This theorem therefore leads to a new formulation of (...)
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  3. New Prospects for a Causally Local Formulation of Quantum Theory.Jacob A. Barandes - manuscript
    It is difficult to extract reliable criteria for causal locality from the limited ingredients found in textbook quantum theory. In the end, Bell humbly warned that his eponymous theorem was based on criteria that “should be viewed with the utmost suspicion.” Remarkably, by stepping outside the wave-function paradigm, one can reformulate quantum theory in terms of old-fashioned configuration spaces together with ‘unistochastic’ laws. These unistochastic laws take the form of directed conditional probabilities, which turn out to provide a hospitable foundation (...)
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  4. The Stochastic-Quantum Correspondence.Jacob A. Barandes - manuscript
    This paper introduces an exact correspondence between a general class of stochastic systems and quantum theory. This correspondence provides a new framework for using Hilbert-space methods to formulate highly generic, non-Markovian types of stochastic dynamics, with potential applications throughout the sciences. This paper also uses the correspondence in the other direction to reconstruct quantum theory from physical models that consist of trajectories in configuration spaces undergoing stochastic dynamics. The correspondence thereby yields a new formulation of quantum theory, alongside the Hilbert-space, (...)
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  5. Kantian and Neo-Kantian First Principles for Physical and Metaphysical Cognition.Michael E. Cuffaro - manuscript
    I argue that Immanuel Kant's critical philosophy—in particular the doctrine of transcendental idealism which grounds it—is best understood as an `epistemic' or `metaphilosophical' doctrine. As such it aims to show how one may engage in the natural sciences and in metaphysics under the restriction that certain conditions are imposed on our cognition of objects. Underlying Kant's doctrine, however, is an ontological posit, of a sort, regarding the fundamental nature of our cognition. This posit, sometimes called the `discursivity thesis', while considered (...)
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  6. Bimodal Quantum Theory.Saurav Dwivedi - manuscript
    Some variants of quantum theory theorize dogmatic "unimodal" states-of-being, and are based on hodge-podge classical-quantum language. They are based on ontic syntax, but pragmatic semantics. This error was termed semantic inconsistency [1]. Measurement seems to be central problem of these theories, and widely discussed in their interpretation. Copenhagen theory deviates from this prescription, which is modeled on experience. A complete quantum experiment is "bimodal". An experimenter creates the system-under-study in initial mode of experiment, and annihilates it in the final. The (...)
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  7. On Classical and Quantum Logical Entropy.David Ellerman - manuscript
    The notion of a partition on a set is mathematically dual to the notion of a subset of a set, so there is a logic of partitions dual to Boole's logic of subsets (Boolean logic is usually mis-specified as "propositional" logic). The notion of an element of a subset has as its dual the notion of a distinction of a partition (a pair of elements in different blocks). Boole developed finite logical probability as the normalized counting measure on elements of (...)
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  8. Putting probabilities first. How Hilbert space generates and constrains them.Michael Janas, Michael Cuffaro & Michel Janssen - manuscript
    We use Bub's (2016) correlation arrays and Pitowksy's (1989b) correlation polytopes to analyze an experimental setup due to Mermin (1981) for measurements on the singlet state of a pair of spin-12 particles. The class of correlations allowed by quantum mechanics in this setup is represented by an elliptope inscribed in a non-signaling cube. The class of correlations allowed by local hidden-variable theories is represented by a tetrahedron inscribed in this elliptope. We extend this analysis to pairs of particles of arbitrary (...)
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  9. On the (Im)possibility of Scalable Quantum Computing.Andrew Knight - manuscript
    The potential for scalable quantum computing depends on the viability of fault tolerance and quantum error correction, by which the entropy of environmental noise is removed during a quantum computation to maintain the physical reversibility of the computer’s logical qubits. However, the theory underlying quantum error correction applies a linguistic double standard to the words “noise” and “measurement” by treating environmental interactions during a quantum computation as inherently reversible, and environmental interactions at the end of a quantum computation as irreversible (...)
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  10. The Invalid Inference of Universality in Quantum Mechanics.Andrew Knight - manuscript
    The universality assumption (“U”) that quantum wave states only evolve by linear or unitary dynamics has led to a variety of paradoxes in the foundations of physics. U is not directly supported by empirical evidence but is rather an inference from data obtained from microscopic systems. The inference of U conflicts with empirical observations of macroscopic systems, giving rise to the century-old measurement problem and subjecting the inference of U to a higher standard of proof, the burden of which lies (...)
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  11. Wigner’s Friend Depends on Self-Contradictory Quantum Amplification.Andrew Knight - manuscript
    In a recent paper, Zukowski and Markiewicz showed that Wigner’s Friend (and, by extension, Schrodinger’s Cat) can be eliminated as physical possibilities on purely logical grounds. I validate this result and demonstrate the source of the contradiction in a simple experiment in which a scientist S attempts to measure the position of object |O⟩ = |A⟩S +|B⟩S by using measuring device M chosen so that |A⟩M ≈ |A⟩S and |B⟩M ≈ |B⟩S. I assume that the measurement occurs by quantum amplification (...)
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  12. Bohr’s Relational Holism and the classical-quantum Interaction.Mauro Dorato - 2016
    In this paper I present and critically discuss the main strategies that Bohr used and could have used to fend off the charge that his interpretation does not provide a clear-cut distinction between the classical and the quantum domain. In particular, in the first part of the paper I reassess the main arguments used by Bohr to advocate the indispensability of a classical framework to refer to quantum phenomena. In this respect, by using a distinction coming from an apparently unrelated (...)
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  13. The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Decoherence.Davide Romano -
    This paper aims to clarify some conceptual aspects of decoherence that seem largely overlooked in the recent literature. In particular, I want to stress that decoherence theory, in the standard framework, is rather silent with respect to the description of (sub)systems and associated dynamics. Also, the selection of position basis for classical objects is more problematic than usually thought: while, on the one hand, decoherence offers a pragmatic-oriented solution to this problem, on the other hand, this can hardly be seen (...)
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  14. How decoherence can solve the measurement problem.Dieter Zeh - manuscript
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  15. Does Consciousness-Collapse Quantum Mechanics Facilitate Dualistic Mental Causation?Alin C. Cucu - forthcoming - Journal of Cognitive Science.
    One of the most serious challenges (if not the most serious challenge) for interactive psycho-physical dualism (henceforth interactive dualism or ID) is the so-called ‘interaction problem’. It has two facets, one of which this article focuses on, namely the apparent tension between interactions of non-physical minds in the physical world and physical laws of nature. One family of approaches to alleviate or even dissolve this tension is based on a collapse solution (‘consciousness collapse/CC) of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics (...)
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  16. Causal potency of consciousness in the physical world.Danko D. Georgiev - forthcoming - International Journal of Modern Physics B:2450256.
    The evolution of the human mind through natural selection mandates that our conscious experiences are causally potent in order to leave a tangible impact upon the surrounding physical world. Any attempt to construct a functional theory of the conscious mind within the framework of classical physics, however, inevitably leads to causally impotent conscious experiences in direct contradiction to evolution theory. Here, we derive several rigorous theorems that identify the origin of the latter impasse in the mathematical properties of ordinary differential (...)
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  17. Measurements, Preparations, and Interpretations in Quantum Theory: A Comment on Meehan.Guy Hetzroni - forthcoming - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
    I address the recent debate between Meehan and Vaidman concerning the claim made by the former for a new problem to quantum mechanics. I argue that while Meehan's incompatibility claim does hold in the situation he presents, it does not genuinely involve considerations that can limit quantum state preparation, nor does it introduce new constrains over possible interpretations of quantum theory.
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  18. Negative-Energy Matter and the Direction of Time.J. C. Lindner - forthcoming
    This report offers a modern perspective on the problem of negative energy, based on a reexamination of the concept of time direction as it arises in a classical and quantum-mechanical context. From this analysis emerges an improved understanding of the general-relativistic stress-energy of matter as being a manifestation of local variations in the energy density of zero-point vacuum fluctuations. Based on those developments, a set of axioms is proposed from which are derived generalized gravitational field equations which actually constitute a (...)
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  19. Have underground radiation measurements refuted the Orch OR theory?Kelvin J. McQueen - forthcoming - Physics of Life Reviews.
    In [1] it is claimed that, based on radiation emission measurements described in [2], a certain “variant” of the Orch OR theory has been refuted. I agree with this claim. However, the significance of this result for Orch OR per se is unclear. After all, the refuted “variant” was never advocated by anyone, and it contradicts the views of Hameroff and Penrose (hereafter: HP) who invented Orch OR [3]. My aim is to get clear on this situation. I argue that (...)
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  20. Who’s Afraid of the Measurement Problem?Valia Allori - 2024 - In Angelo Bassi, Sheldon Goldstein, Roderich Tumulka & Nino Zanghì (eds.), Physics and the Nature of Reality: Essays in Memory of Detlef Dürr. Springer. pp. 393-409.
    Scientific realists usually claim that quantum mechanics can be made compatible with scientific realism by solving the measurement problem, even if there is disagreement about which solution is best. In this paper I argue this is due to having different views about what it means to make quantum theory compatible with scientific realism: ‘relaxed’ realists think it is enough to solve the adequacy problem, ‘modest’ realists believe that there is also a precision problem, while ‘robust’ realists insist that quantum theory (...)
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  21. Towards a process-based approach to consciousness and collapse in quantum mechanics.Raoni Arroyo, Lauro de Matos Nunes Filho & Frederik Moreira Dos Santos - 2024 - Manuscrito 47 (1):2023-0047.
    According to a particular interpretation of quantum mechanics, the causal role of human consciousness in the measuring process is called upon to solve a foundational problem called the “measurement problem.” Traditionally, this interpretation is tied up with the metaphysics of substance dualism. As such, this interpretation of quantum mechanics inherits the dualist’s mind-body problem. Our working hypothesis is that a process-based approach to the consciousness causes collapse interpretation (CCCI) ---leaning on Whitehead’s solution to the mind-body problem--- offers a better metaphysical (...)
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  22. Situated Observation and the Quantum Measurement Problem.Jeffrey Barrett - 2024 - In Angelo Bassi, Sheldon Goldstein, Roderich Tumulka & Nino Zanghì (eds.), Physics and the Nature of Reality: Essays in Memory of Detlef Dürr. Springer. pp. 355-367.
    A situated observer is an observer as modeled within the world characterized by one’s physical theory. A physical theory arguably only makes empirical predictions if it makes predictions for the records of a situated observer. In this spirit, one has a satisfactory solution to the measurement problem only if one has a formulation of quantum mechanics that makes the right empirical predictions for the records of a situated observer. Bohmian mechanics addresses the measurement problem by explaining what measurement records are, (...)
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  23. Zeno Goes to Copenhagen: A Dilemma for Measurement-Collapse Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics.David J. Chalmers & Kelvin J. McQueen - 2023 - In M. C. Kafatos, D. Banerji & D. C. Struppa (eds.), Quantum and Consciousness Revisited. DK Publisher.
    A familiar interpretation of quantum mechanics (one of a number of views sometimes labeled the "Copenhagen interpretation'"), takes its empirical apparatus at face value, holding that the quantum wave function evolves by the Schrödinger equation except on certain occasions of measurement, when it collapses into a new state according to the Born rule. This interpretation is widely rejected, primarily because it faces the measurement problem: "measurement" is too imprecise for use in a fundamental physical theory. We argue that this is (...)
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  24. The Measurement Problem is a Feature, Not a Bug – Schematising the Observer and the Concept of an Open System on an Informational, or (neo-)Bohrian, Approach.Michael E. Cuffaro - 2023 - Entropy 25:1410.
    I flesh out the sense in which the informational approach to interpreting quantum mechanics, as defended by Pitowsky and Bub and lately by a number of other authors, is (neo-)Bohrian. I argue that on this approach, quantum mechanics represents what Bohr called a “natural generalisation of the ordinary causal description” in the sense that the idea (which philosophers of science like Stein have argued for on the grounds of practical and epistemic necessity) that understanding a theory as a theory of (...)
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  25. Quantum mechanical measurement in monistic systems theory.Klaus Fröhlich - 2023 - Science and Philosophy 11 (2):76-83.
    The monistic worldview aims at a uniform description of nature based on scientific models. Quantum physical systems are mutually part of the other quantum physical systems. An aperture distributes the subsystems and the wave front in all possible ways. The system only takes one of the possible paths, as measurements show. Conclusion from Bell's theorem: Before the quantum physical measurement, there is no point-like location in the universe where all the information that explains the measurement is available. Distributed information is (...)
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  26. The pragmatic QFT measurement problem and the need for a Heisenberg-like cut in QFT.Daniel Grimmer - 2023 - Synthese 202 (4):1-45.
    Despite quantum theory’s remarkable success at predicting the statistical results of experiments, many philosophers worry that it nonetheless lacks some crucial connection between theory and experiment. Such worries constitute the Quantum Measurement Problems. One can broadly identify two kinds of worries: (1) pragmatic: it is unclear how to model our measurement processes in order to extract experimental predictions, and (2) realist: we lack a satisfying metaphysical account of measurement processes. While both issues deserve attention, the pragmatic worries have worse consequences (...)
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  27. Gravitational decoherence: A thematic overview.C. Anastopoulos & B. L. Hu - 2022 - AVS Quantum Science 4:015602.
    Gravitational decoherence (GD) refers to the effects of gravity in actuating the classical appearance of a quantum system. Because the underlying processes involve issues in general relativity (GR), quantum field theory (QFT), and quantum information, GD has fundamental theoretical significance. There is a great variety of GD models, many of them involving physics that diverge from GR and/or QFT. This overview has two specific goals along with one central theme:(i) present theories of GD based on GR and QFT and explore (...)
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  28. Quantum Information in Relativity: The Challenge of QFT Measurements.C. Anastopoulos & N. Savvidou - 2022 - Entropy 24:4.
    Proposed quantum experiments in deep space will be able to explore quantum information issues in regimes where relativistic effects are important. In this essay, we argue that a proper extension of quantum information theory into the relativistic domain requires the expression of all informational notions in terms of quantum field theoretic (QFT) concepts. This task requires a working and practicable theory of QFT measurements. We present the foundational problems in constructing such a theory, especially in relation to longstanding causality and (...)
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  29. The (meta)metaphysics of science: the case of non-relativistic quantum mechanics.Raoni Wohnrath Arroyo & Jonas R. B. Arenhart - 2022 - Kriterion – Journal of Philosophy 63 (152):275-296.
    Traditionally, being a realist about something means believing in the independent existence of that something. In this line of thought, a scientific realist is someone who believes in the objective existence of the entities postulated by our best scientific theories. In metaphysical terms, what does that mean? In ontological terms, i.e., in terms of what exists, scientific realism can be understood as involving the adoption of a scientifically informed ontology. But according to some philosophers, a realistic attitude must go beyond (...)
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  30. Whence deep realism for Everettian quantum mechanics?Raoni Wohnrath Arroyo & Jonas R. Becker Arenhart - 2022 - Foundations of Physics 52 (6):121.
    ‘Shallow’ and ‘deep’ versions of scientific realism may be distinguished as follows: the shallow realist is satisfied with belief in the existence of the posits of our best scientific theories; by contrast, deep realists claim that realism can be legitimate only if such entities are described in metaphysical terms. We argue that this methodological discussion can be fruitfully applied in Everettian quantum mechanics, specifically on the debate concerning the existence of worlds and the recent dispute between Everettian actualism and quantum (...)
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  31. Against ‘Interpretation’: Quantum Mechanics Beyond Syntax and Semantics.Raoni Wohnrath Arroyo & Gilson Olegario da Silva - 2022 - Axiomathes 32 (6):1243-1279.
    The question “what is an interpretation?” is often intertwined with the perhaps even harder question “what is a scientific theory?”. Given this proximity, we try to clarify the first question to acquire some ground for the latter. The quarrel between the syntactic and semantic conceptions of scientific theories occupied a large part of the scenario of the philosophy of science in the 20th century. For many authors, one of the two currents needed to be victorious. We endorse that such debate, (...)
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  32. Evolution as Nature's Trajectory from Computation to Narration.Ted Dace - 2022 - Cosmos and History : The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy 18 (2):175-227.
    Because the basis of physical order is temporal, evolution and narrative are naturally emergent and not inexplicable anomalies in a universe predetermined by timeless mathematical principles. The temporal world of life and consciousness has no place in classical physics but is perfectly at home in a quantum context. In and of itself an atom is the continuous computation of outcomes of potential interactions. The central mystery of quantum mechanics is cleared up by replacing measurement with temporal instantiation as the mechanism (...)
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  33. John Bell on ‘Subject and Object’: An Exchange.Hans Halvorson & Jeremy Butterfield - 2022 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 54 (2):305-324.
    This three-part paper comprises: (i) a critique by Halvorson of Bell’s (1973) paper ‘Subject and Object’; (ii) a comment by Butterfield; (iii) a reply by Halvorson. An Appendix gives the passage from Bell that is the focus of Halvorson’s critique.
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  34. Understanding Quantum Raffles: Quantum Mechanics on an Informational Approach - Structure and Interpretation (Foreword by Jeffrey Bub).Michael Janas, Michael E. Cuffaro & Michel Janssen - 2022 - Springer.
    This book offers a thorough technical elaboration and philosophical defense of an objectivist informational interpretation of quantum mechanics according to which its novel content is located in its kinematical framework, that is, in how the theory describes systems independently of the specifics of their dynamics. -/- It will be of interest to researchers and students in the philosophy of physics and in theoretical physics with an interest in the foundations of quantum mechanics. Additionally, parts of the book may be used (...)
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  35. Limitations to Genuine Measurements in Ontological Models of Quantum Mechanics.Roderich Tumulka - 2022 - Foundations of Physics 52 (5):1-7.
    Given an ontological model of a quantum system, a “genuine measurement,” as opposed to a quantum measurement, means an experiment that determines the value of a beable, i.e., of a variable that, according to the model, has an actual value in nature before the experiment. We prove a theorem showing that in every ontological model, it is impossible to measure all beables. Put differently, there is no experiment that would reliably determine the ontic state. This result shows that the positivistic (...)
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  36. The View from a Wigner Bubble.Eric G. Cavalcanti - 2021 - Foundations of Physics 51 (2):1-31.
    In a recent no-go theorem [Bong et al., Nature Physics (2020)], we proved that the predictions of unitary quantum mechanics for an extended Wigner’s friend scenario are incompatible with any theory satisfying three metaphysical assumptions, the conjunction of which we call “Local Friendliness”: Absoluteness of Observed Events, Locality and No-Superdeterminism. In this paper (based on an invited talk for the QBism jubilee at the 2019 Växjö conference) I discuss the implications of this theorem for QBism, as seen from the point (...)
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  37. The physics and metaphysics of Tychistic Bohmian Mechanics.Patrick Duerr & Alexander Ehmann - 2021 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 90:168-183.
    The paper takes up Bell's “Everett theory” and develops it further. The resulting theory is about the system of all particles in the universe, each located in ordinary, 3-dimensional space. This many-particle system as a whole performs random jumps through 3N-dimensional configuration space – hence “Tychistic Bohmian Mechanics”. The distribution of its spontaneous localisations in configuration space is given by the Born Rule probability measure for the universal wavefunction. Contra Bell, the theory is argued to satisfy the minimal desiderata for (...)
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  38. The Measurement Problem, an Ontological Solution.Peter A. Jackson & John S. Minkowski - 2021 - Foundations of Physics 51 (4):1-16.
    A physical mechanical sequence is proposed representing measurement interactions ‘hidden' within QM's proverbial ‘black box'. Our ‘beam splitter' pairs share a polar angle, but head in opposite directions, so ‘led' by opposite hemisphere rotations. For orbital ‘ellipticity', we use the inverse value momentum ‘pairs' of Maxwell's ‘linear' and ‘curl' momenta, seen as vectors on the Poincare spherical surface. Values change inversely from 0 to 1 over 90 degrees, then ± inverts.. Detector polarising screens consist of electrons with the same vector (...)
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  39. Why Quantum Measurements Yield Single Values.H. S. Perlman - 2021 - Foundations of Physics 51 (1):1-6.
    It is shown that the Born Rule probabilities, i.e. the squares of the moduli of the coefficients in a pure state superposition, refer to mutually exclusive events consequent on measurement. It is also shown that the eigenstates in a pure state superposition are not mutually exclusive events. If the Born Rule is to be retained as the fundamental interpretative postulate of quantum mechanics then it follows, firstly, that the probabilities necessarily refer not to the eigenstates but to the eigenvalues to (...)
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  40. Wigner’s friend and Relational Quantum Mechanics: A Reply to Laudisa.Nikki Weststeijn - 2021 - Foundations of Physics 51 (4):1-13.
    Relational Quantum Mechanics is an interpretation of quantum mechanics proposed by Carlo Rovelli. Rovelli argues that, in the same spirit as Einstein’s theory of relativity, physical quantities can only have definite values relative to an observer. Relational Quantum Mechanics is hereby able to offer a principled explanation of the problem of nested measurement, also known as Wigner’s friend. Since quantum states are taken to be relative states that depend on both the system and the observer, there is no inconsistency in (...)
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  41. Measurement and Quantum Dynamics in the Minimal Modal Interpretation of Quantum Theory.Jacob A. Barandes & David Kagan - 2020 - Foundations of Physics 50 (10):1189-1218.
    Any realist interpretation of quantum theory must grapple with the measurement problem and the status of state-vector collapse. In a no-collapse approach, measurement is typically modeled as a dynamical process involving decoherence. We describe how the minimal modal interpretation closes a gap in this dynamical description, leading to a complete and consistent resolution to the measurement problem and an effective form of state collapse. Our interpretation also provides insight into the indivisible nature of measurement—the fact that you can't stop a (...)
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  42. Quantum theory is not only about information.Laura Felline - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 72:256-265.
    In his recent book Bananaworld. Quantum mechanics for primates, Jeff Bub revives and provides a mature version of his influential information-theoretic interpretation of Quantum Theory (QT). In this paper, I test Bub’s conjecture that QT should be interpreted as a theory about information, by examining whether his information-theoretic interpretation has the resources to explain (or explain away) quantum conundrums. The discussion of Bub’s theses will also serve to investigate, more in general, whether other approaches succeed in defending the claim that (...)
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  43. Reformulating Bell's theorem: The search for a truly local quantum theory.Mordecai Waegell & Kelvin J. McQueen - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 70:39-50.
    The apparent nonlocality of quantum theory has been a persistent concern. Einstein et al. and Bell emphasized the apparent nonlocality arising from entanglement correlations. While some interpretations embrace this nonlocality, modern variations of the Everett-inspired many worlds interpretation try to circumvent it. In this paper, we review Bell's "no-go" theorem and explain how it rests on three axioms, local causality, no superdeterminism, and one world. Although Bell is often taken to have shown that local causality is ruled out by the (...)
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  44. In defence of the self-location uncertainty account of probability in the many-worlds interpretation.Kelvin J. McQueen & Lev Vaidman - 2019 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 66 (C):14-23.
    We defend the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics against the objection that it cannot explain why measurement outcomes are predicted by the Born probability rule. We understand quantum probabilities in terms of an observer's self-location probabilities. We formulate a probability postulate for the MWI: the probability of self-location in a world with a given set of outcomes is the absolute square of that world's amplitude. We provide a proof of this postulate, which assumes the quantum formalism and two principles concerning (...)
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  45. Where Does Quanta Meet Mind?Carlos Montemayor & J. de Barros - 2019 - In J. De Barros & Carlos Montemayor (eds.), Quanta and Mind. Springer Verlag.
    The connection between quantum physics and the mind has been debated for almost a hundred years. There are several proposals as to how quantum effects might be relevant to understanding consciousness, including von Neumann’s Consciousness Causes Collapse interpretation (CCC), Penrose’s Orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR), Atmanspacher quantum emergence theory, or Vitiello’s field theory. In this paper, we examine the CCC, in particular Stapp’s theory of interaction of mind and matter, and discuss how this imposes constraints to possible brain structures. We (...)
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  46. Reality and the Probability Wave.Daniel Shanahan - 2019 - International Journal of Quantum Foundations 5:51-68.
    Effects associated in quantum mechanics with a divisible probability wave are explained as physically real consequences of the equal but opposite reaction of the apparatus as a particle is measured. Taking as illustration a Mach-Zehnder interferometer operating by refraction, it is shown that this reaction must comprise a fluctuation in the reradiation field of complementary effect to the changes occurring in the photon as it is projected into one or other path. The evolution of this fluctuation through the experiment will (...)
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  47. Doctor Strange, the Multiverse, and the Measurement Problem.Philipp Berghofer - 2018 - In Mark D. White (ed.), Doctor Strange and Philosophy. Chichester, UK: Wiley. pp. 151–163.
    In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), according to the Ancient One, magic is created by drawing energy from the other dimensions of the multiverse. This sounds like a concept from science fiction, but the idea that people are living in a vast multiverse is very possibly science fact. A recurring and especially important theme in Doctor Strange is the role that human beings are supposed to play in the universe. The concept of the multiverse is well established in the Marvel (...)
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  48. Quantum Mechanics Between Ontology and Epistemology.Florian J. Boge - 2018 - Cham: Springer (European Studies in Philosophy of Science).
    This book explores the prospects of rivaling ontological and epistemic interpretations of quantum mechanics (QM). It concludes with a suggestion for how to interpret QM from an epistemological point of view and with a Kantian touch. It thus refines, extends, and combines existing approaches in a similar direction. -/- The author first looks at current, hotly debated ontological interpretations. These include hidden variables-approaches, Bohmian mechanics, collapse interpretations, and the many worlds interpretation. He demonstrates why none of these ontological interpretations can (...)
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  49. Taking Heisenberg's Potentia Seriously.Ruth Kastner, Stuart Kauffman & Michael Epperson - 2018 - International Journal of Quantum Foundations 4 (2):158-172.
    It is argued that quantum theory is best understood as requiring an ontological duality of res extensa and res potentia, where the latter is understood per Heisenberg’s original proposal, and the former is roughly equivalent to Descartes’ ‘extended substance.’ However, this is not a dualism of mutually exclusive substances in the classical Cartesian sense, and therefore does not inherit the infamous ‘mind-body’ problem. Rather, res potentia and res extensa are proposed as mutually implicative ontological extants that serve to explain the (...)
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  50. Book review of S. Gao "Protective Measurement and Quantum Reality". [REVIEW]Valia Allori - 2017 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science:x-y.
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