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arXiv:1810.04573

The Measurement Problem Is the "Measurement" Problem

Arne Hansen, Stefan Wolf

Published Oct 10, 2018• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The term "measurement" in quantum theory (as well as in other physical theories) is ambiguous: It is used to describe both an experience - e.g., an observation in an experiment - and an interaction with the system under scrutiny. If doing physics is regarded as a creative activity to develop a meaningful description of the world, then one has to carefully discriminate between the two notions: An observer's account of experience - consitutive to meaning - is hardly expressed exhaustively by the formal framework of an interaction within one particular theory. We develop a corresponding perspective onto central terms in quantum mechanics in general, and onto the measurement problem in particular.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1810.04573

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The term "measurement" in quantum theory (as well as in other physical theories) is ambiguous: It is used to describe both an experience - e.g., an observation in an experiment - and an interaction with the system under scrutiny. If doing physics is regarded as a creative activity to develop a meaningful description of the world, then one has to carefully discriminate between the two notions: An observer's account of experience - consitutive to meaning - is hardly expressed exhaustively by the formal framework of an interaction within one particular theory. We develop a corresponding perspective onto central terms in quantum mechanics in general, and onto the measurement problem in particular.
In quantum mechanics, the measurement problem is commonly regarded as reason for deep concern. It seems that, either, the problem can be solved and there is hope for quantum mechanics, or the theory better be left behind in search of another one. We investigate the prospect of finding a solution to the measurement problem—within quantum mechanics, as well as in theoretical frameworks beyond it. As we do so, there emerges a perspective on doing physics drawing from considerations in the philosophy of language and in epistemology. Developing this perspective for further aspects in physics reveals: The notion of a system is similarly problematic. Eventually, the question arises whether these are problems of specific physical theories, or rather of specific stances towards physics. In this regard, we examine in particular the role and understanding of assumptions.
Measurements play a crucial role in doing physics: Their results provide the basis on which we adopt or reject physical theories. In this note, we examine the effect of subjecting measurements themselves to our experience. We require that our contact with the world is empirically warranted. Therefore, we study theories that satisfy the following assumption: Interactions are accounted for so that they are empirically traceable, and observations necessarily go with such an interaction with the observed system. Examining, with regard to these assumptions, an abstract representation of measurements with tools from quantum logic leads us to contextual theories. Contextuality becomes a means to render interactions, thus also measurements, empirically tangible. The measurement becomes problematic---also beyond quantum mechanics---if one tries to commensurate the assumption of tangible interactions with the notion of a spectator theory, i.e., with the idea that measurement results are read off without effect. The problem, thus, presents itself as the collision of different epistemological stances with repercussions beyond quantum mechanics.
The measurement problem is seen as an ambiguity of quantum mechanics, or, beyond that, as a contradiction within the theory: Quantum mechanics offers two conflicting descriptions of the Wigner's-friend experiment. As we argue in this note there are, however, obstacles from within quantum mechanics and regarding our perspective onto doing physics towards fully describing a measurement. We conclude that the ability to exhaustively describe a measurement is an assumption necessary for the common framing of the measurement problem and ensuing suggested solutions.
Operatoric Research CorpusStudies in World-Formation Section I Ontology and Physics Volume 3 Time, Recurrence and World-Binding – Eigenzeit in Physics and Consciousness The present volume brings together four contributions that pursue a common ontological question: under what conditions can determinate reality arise from an open dynamics of possibilities, and when does this transition take the form of observation or experience. The point of departure is the diagnosis that central problems of modern physics and consciousness research—most notably the measurement problem of quantum mechanics and the so-called “hard problem” of consciousness—rest on a categorial confusion. Transitions between openness and facticity are typically interpreted as processes that must be mediated within a shared temporal framework. The contributions collected here argue, by contrast, that this expectation itself forms part of the difficulty. Where implicative boundary acts are involved, the question of a mediating “how” loses its validity. From this perspective, the measurement problem is reread. Measurement no longer appears primarily as an epistemic act performed by an observer, but as an ontological stabilization of determinacy under conditions of structural overload within open dynamics. Observation, in this sense, is not a special property of particular systems, but a space-internal operation through which world stabilizes events and perspectives. Against this background, the volume develops the concept of ontological recurrence within the MNO model (Submergence–Indimergence–Emergence), originally introduced in The Physics of the Poor. Recurrence designates a cyclical return of a system to the space of its own possibilities prior to the stabilization of an actual state. The central proposal is that the transition from possibility to actuality can occur in two structurally distinct forms: as ordinary measurement without recurrence, or as phenomenal actualization under conditions of recurrence. This distinction makes it possible to treat the measurement problem of quantum mechanics and the emergence of conscious experience within a shared structural framework. At the same time, it suggests a minimal dynamical condition under which physical collapse events—such as those discussed in Orch-OR models—can acquire phenomenal quality. The volume therefore does not present itself as a new interpretation of quantum mechanics in the narrow sense. Its aim is rather a categorial clarification of the conditions under which concepts such as measurement, observer, experience, and time can be meaningfully formulated and related to one another.