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Bryce DeWitt referee report on paper, "Everett's Theory and the 'Many Worlds' Interpretation"

Bryce Seligman DeWitt

Published May 20, 2011• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Around 1988, Bryce DeWitt was asked to referee a paper by an author who argued that that DeWitt's version of Hugh Everett's theory was not true to Everett's original work. In his referee report, DeWitt offers to "set the record straight" about his interpretation of Everett's work. This is a copy of DeWitt's referee report. A version of the reviewed paper was subsequently published in 1990 in the American Journal of Physics. At the request of the DeWitt estate, the name of the author of the paper has been redacted. For further details see Byrne, P. (2010). The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III. Oxford University Press.

Related papers

Hugh Everett letter to Princeton University Press, 5-April-1980

Everett, Hugh

A short note from Hugh Everett III to Princeton University Press requesting 12 copies of the Graham-DeWitt anthology, The Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.

•Apr 5, 1980•0 citations

Hugh Everett letter to Bryce S. DeWitt, 31-May-1957

Hugh Everett

As a close friend and collaborator of Wheeler's, DeWitt was one of the first people to see a draft of the short version of Everett's thesis (he did not read the longer version until much later, as is evidenced by some of the complaints in this letter). In May 1957, DeWitt wrote a long and thoughtful letter to Wheeler about how Everett's theory had conceptual parallels with Einstein's theory of general relativity. At the end of that month, Everett sent his reply. This document is a copy of the letter that Everett sent. In response to DeWitt's insistence that he has direct introspective evidence that he does not split, Everett draws an analogy with anti-Copernicans, who argued that they had direct evidence that the world did not move. Based on much later remarks, it seems that DeWitt was convinced by Everett's rejoinder.

•May 19, 2011•0 citations

Making Sense of the Many Worlds Interpretation

S. P. Boughn

It has been 61 years since Hugh Everett III's PhD dissertation, {\it On the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics}, was submitted to the Princeton University Physics Department. After more than a decade of relative obscurity it was resurrected by Bryce DeWitt as {\it The Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics} and since then has become an active topic of discussion, reinterpretation, and modification, especially among philosophers of science, quantum cosmologists, and advocates of quantum decoherence and quantum computing. Many of these analyses are quite sophisticated and considered to be important contributions to physics and philosophy. I am primarily an experimental physicist and my pragmatic ruminations on the subject might viewed with some suspicion. Indeed, Bohr's pragmatic {\it Copenhagen Interpretation} is often disparaged by this same cohort. Still, I think that my experimentalist's vantage point has something to offer and I here offer it to you.

arXiv:1801.08587•Jan 25, 2018•3 citations

Hugh Everett handwritten draft letter to Bryce S. DeWitt, 31-May-1957

Everett, Hugh

As a close friend and collaborator of J.A. Wheeler's, Bryce S. DeWitt was one of the first people to see a draft of the short version of Hugh Everett's thesis (he did not read the longer version until much later, as is evidenced by some of the complaints in this letter). In May 1957, DeWitt wrote a long and thoughtful letter to Wheeler about how Everett's theory had conceptual parallels with Einstein's theory of general relativity. At the end of that month, Everett sent his reply. This document is a handwritten draft/outline of the letter that Everett ultimately sent.

•May 31, 1957•0 citations

The Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

Jeffrey A. Barrett, Peter Byrne

Hugh Everett III was an American physicist best known for his many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which formed the basis of his PhD thesis at Princeton University in 1957. Although counterintuitive, Everett's revolutionary formulation of quantum mechanics offers the most direct solution to the infamous quantum measurement problem--that is, how and why the singular world of our experience emerges from the multiplicities of alternatives available in the quantum world. The many-worlds interpretation postulates the existence of multiple universes. Whenever a measurement-like interaction occurs, the universe branches into relative states, one for each possible outcome of the measurement, and the world in which we find ourselves is but one of these many, but equally real, possibilities. Everett's challenge to the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics was met with scorn from Niels Bohr and other leading physicists, and Everett subsequently abandoned academia to conduct military operations research. Today, however, Everett's formulation of quantum mechanics is widely recognized as one of the most controversial but promising physical theories of the last century. In this book, Jeffrey Barrett and Peter Byrne present the long and short versions of Everett's thesis along with a collection of his explanatory writings and correspondence. These primary source documents, many of them newly discovered and most unpublished until now, reveal how Everett's thinking evolved from his days as a graduate student to his untimely death in 1982. This definitive volume also features Barrett and Byrne's introductory essays, notes, and commentary that put Everett's extraordinary theory into historical and scientific perspective and discuss the puzzles that still remain.

Princeton University Press eBooks•Dec 31, 2012•51 citations

Many worlds: quantum theory and reality?

Iñaki San Pedro

Recent years have seen a good deal of work done on one of the most mind blowing and conceptually radical views in quantum mechanics, namely the ‘many worlds’ interpretation of quantum mechanics. Many worlds was first proposed by Hugh Everett III in his long Ph.D. dissertation, which only some years later, and after significant shortening, came to be published as the ‘Relative State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics’ (Everett 1957). To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first publication of Everett's ideas, two conferences were held at Oxford University and the Perimeter Institute, which brought together some of the most active researchers in the field. The works presented in these two conferences have now been compiled in the volume Many Worlds? Everett, Quantum Theory and Reality, edited by Simon Saunders, Jonathan Barrett, Adrian Kent and David Wallace.1 This is then a comprehensive collection of papers – 23 papers altogether – where the reader will find virtually anything that can be said about the many worlds interpretation today.

Analysis•Feb 16, 2012•1 citation
Around 1988, Bryce DeWitt was asked to referee a paper by an author who argued that that DeWitt's version of Hugh Everett's theory was not true to Everett's original work. In his referee report, DeWitt offers to "set the record straight" about his interpretation of Everett's work. This is a copy of DeWitt's referee report. A version of the reviewed paper was subsequently published in 1990 in the American Journal of Physics. At the request of the DeWitt estate, the name of the author of the paper has been redacted. For further details see Byrne, P. (2010). The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III. Oxford University Press.
As a close friend and collaborator of Wheeler's, DeWitt was one of the first people to see a draft of the short version of Everett's thesis (he did not read the longer version until much later, as is evidenced by some of the complaints in this letter). In May 1957, DeWitt wrote a long and thoughtful letter to Wheeler about how Everett's theory had conceptual parallels with Einstein's theory of general relativity. At the end of that month, Everett sent his reply. This document is a copy of the letter that Everett sent. In response to DeWitt's insistence that he has direct introspective evidence that he does not split, Everett draws an analogy with anti-Copernicans, who argued that they had direct evidence that the world did not move. Based on much later remarks, it seems that DeWitt was convinced by Everett's rejoinder.
It has been 61 years since Hugh Everett III's PhD dissertation, {\it On the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics}, was submitted to the Princeton University Physics Department. After more than a decade of relative obscurity it was resurrected by Bryce DeWitt as {\it The Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics} and since then has become an active topic of discussion, reinterpretation, and modification, especially among philosophers of science, quantum cosmologists, and advocates of quantum decoherence and quantum computing. Many of these analyses are quite sophisticated and considered to be important contributions to physics and philosophy. I am primarily an experimental physicist and my pragmatic ruminations on the subject might viewed with some suspicion. Indeed, Bohr's pragmatic {\it Copenhagen Interpretation} is often disparaged by this same cohort. Still, I think that my experimentalist's vantage point has something to offer and I here offer it to you.
As a close friend and collaborator of J.A. Wheeler's, Bryce S. DeWitt was one of the first people to see a draft of the short version of Hugh Everett's thesis (he did not read the longer version until much later, as is evidenced by some of the complaints in this letter). In May 1957, DeWitt wrote a long and thoughtful letter to Wheeler about how Everett's theory had conceptual parallels with Einstein's theory of general relativity. At the end of that month, Everett sent his reply. This document is a handwritten draft/outline of the letter that Everett ultimately sent.
Hugh Everett III was an American physicist best known for his many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which formed the basis of his PhD thesis at Princeton University in 1957. Although counterintuitive, Everett's revolutionary formulation of quantum mechanics offers the most direct solution to the infamous quantum measurement problem--that is, how and why the singular world of our experience emerges from the multiplicities of alternatives available in the quantum world. The many-worlds interpretation postulates the existence of multiple universes. Whenever a measurement-like interaction occurs, the universe branches into relative states, one for each possible outcome of the measurement, and the world in which we find ourselves is but one of these many, but equally real, possibilities. Everett's challenge to the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics was met with scorn from Niels Bohr and other leading physicists, and Everett subsequently abandoned academia to conduct military operations research. Today, however, Everett's formulation of quantum mechanics is widely recognized as one of the most controversial but promising physical theories of the last century. In this book, Jeffrey Barrett and Peter Byrne present the long and short versions of Everett's thesis along with a collection of his explanatory writings and correspondence. These primary source documents, many of them newly discovered and most unpublished until now, reveal how Everett's thinking evolved from his days as a graduate student to his untimely death in 1982. This definitive volume also features Barrett and Byrne's introductory essays, notes, and commentary that put Everett's extraordinary theory into historical and scientific perspective and discuss the puzzles that still remain.
Recent years have seen a good deal of work done on one of the most mind blowing and conceptually radical views in quantum mechanics, namely the ‘many worlds’ interpretation of quantum mechanics. Many worlds was first proposed by Hugh Everett III in his long Ph.D. dissertation, which only some years later, and after significant shortening, came to be published as the ‘Relative State Formulation of Quantum Mechanics’ (Everett 1957). To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first publication of Everett's ideas, two conferences were held at Oxford University and the Perimeter Institute, which brought together some of the most active researchers in the field. The works presented in these two conferences have now been compiled in the volume Many Worlds? Everett, Quantum Theory and Reality, edited by Simon Saunders, Jonathan Barrett, Adrian Kent and David Wallace.1 This is then a comprehensive collection of papers – 23 papers altogether – where the reader will find virtually anything that can be said about the many worlds interpretation today.