Insufficiency of the quantum state for deducing observational probabilities
| Abstract | 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 observer. Then the probability of an observation cannot be deduced simply from the quantum state (say as the expectation value of the projection operator for the observation, as in traditional quantum theory). One needs additional rules to get the probabilities. What these rules are is not logically deducible from the quantum state, so the quantum state itself is insufficient for deducing observational probabilities. | |||||||||
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Similar books and articlesIvan Z. Tsekhmistro (2007). EPR-Experiment Explanation. The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 5:95-99.
David Z. Albert (1988). On the Possibility That the Present Quantum State of the Universe is the Vacuum. PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1988:127 - 133.
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