On Formalisms and Interpretations

Veronika Baumann; Stefan Wolf

doi:10.22331/q-2018-10-15-99

On Formalisms and Interpretations

Veronika Baumann^1,2 and Stefan Wolf¹

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.

► BibTeX data

@article{Baumann2018formalisms,
  doi = {10.22331/q-2018-10-15-99},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2018-10-15-99},
  title = {On {F}ormalisms and {I}nterpretations},
  author = {Baumann, Veronika and Wolf, Stefan},
  journal = {{Quantum}},
  issn = {2521-327X},
  publisher = {{Verein zur F{\"{o}}rderung des Open Access Publizierens in den Quantenwissenschaften}},
  volume = {2},
  pages = {99},
  month = oct,
  year = {2018}
}

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Cited by

[1] Cyril Elouard, Philippe Lewalle, Sreenath K. Manikandan, Spencer Rogers, Adam Frank, and Andrew N. Jordan, "Quantum erasing the memory of Wigner's friend", Quantum 5, 498 (2021).

[2] Reinhold A. Bertlmann, "Real or not real that is the question...", The European Physical Journal H 45 2-3, 205 (2020).

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[4] R. E. Kastner, "Unitary Interactions Do Not Yield Outcomes: Attempting to Model “Wigner’s Friend”", Foundations of Physics 51 4, 89 (2021).

[5] Veronika Baumann and Časlav Brukner, Jerusalem Studies in Philosophy and History of Science 91 (2020) ISBN:978-3-030-34315-6.

[6] Veronika Baumann, Flavio Del Santo, Alexander R. H. Smith, Flaminia Giacomini, Esteban Castro-Ruiz, and Caslav Brukner, "Generalized probability rules from a timeless formulation of Wigner's friend scenarios", Quantum 5, 524 (2021).

[7] Kok-Wei Bong, Aníbal Utreras-Alarcón, Farzad Ghafari, Yeong-Cherng Liang, Nora Tischler, Eric G. Cavalcanti, Geoff J. Pryde, and Howard M. Wiseman, "A strong no-go theorem on the Wigner’s friend paradox", Nature Physics 16 12, 1199 (2020).

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The above citations are from Crossref's cited-by service (last updated successfully 2022-10-01 20:31:40) and SAO/NASA ADS (last updated successfully 2022-10-01 20:31:41). The list may be incomplete as not all publishers provide suitable and complete citation data.

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On Formalisms and Interpretations

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