On Formalisms and Interpretations
1Faculty of Informatics, Università della Svizzera italiana, Via G. Buffi 13, CH-6900 Lugano, Switzerland
2Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
| Published: | 2018-10-15, volume 2, page 99 |
| Eprint: | arXiv:1710.07212v6 |
| Doi: | https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2018-10-15-99 |
| Citation: | Quantum 2, 99 (2018). |
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Abstract
One of the reasons for the heated debates around the interpretations of quantum theory is a simple confusion between the notions of formalism $\textit{versus}$ interpretation. In this note, we make a clear distinction between them and show that there are actually two $\textit{inequivalent}$ quantum formalisms, namely the relative-state formalism and the standard formalism with the Born and measurement-update rules. We further propose a different probability rule for the relative-state formalism and discuss how Wigner's-friend-type experiments could show the inequivalence with the standard formalism. The feasibility in principle of such experiments, however, remains an open question.
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