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"Probability in Wave Mechanics," typed draft, 1955

Hugh Everett

Published May 20, 2011• 0 citations
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Abstract

Before writing a first draft of the long thesis, Hugh Everett wrote three short papers, often refered to as his minipapers, for John Wheeler to review. This minipaper, ultimately called "Probability in Wave Mechanics," develops the basic premise of Everett's thesis stripped of its formalism, but laced with explanatory metaphors, such as splitting amoebas that share overlapping memories until diverging into separate futures recorded as consistent histories. There are several handwritten drafts of this minipaper and two typed versions, one turned into Wheeler. The present document is an early typed version, with Everett's own corrections written in the margins.

Related papers

"Probability in Wave Mechanics," handwritten draft, 1955

Hugh Everett

Before writing a first draft of the long thesis, Hugh Everett wrote three short papers, often refered to as his minipapers, for John Wheeler to review. This minipaper, ultimately called "Probability in Wave Mechanics," develops the basic premise of Everett's thesis stripped of its formalism, but laced with explanatory metaphors, such as splitting amoebas that share overlapping memories until diverging into separate futures recorded as consistent histories. There are several handwritten drafts of this minipaper and two typed versions, one turned into Wheeler. The present document is one of the handwritten documents, found in the early drafts file.

•May 20, 2011•0 citations

"Probability in Wave Mechanics," minipaper, 1955

Hugh Everett

Before writing a first draft of the long thesis, Hugh Everett wrote three short papers, often refered to as his minipapers, for John Wheeler to review. This minipaper, ultimately called "Probability in Wave Mechanics," develops the basic premise of Everett's thesis stripped of its formalism, but laced with explanatory metaphors, such as splitting amoebas that share overlapping memories until diverging into separate futures recorded as consistent histories. There are several handwritten drafts of this minipaper and two typed versions, one turned into Wheeler. The present document is the final typed version that Wheeler saw, with Wheeler's comments penciled in the margin.

•May 20, 2011•0 citations

"Objective vs Subjective Probability," handwritten draft, 1955

Hugh Everett

Before writing a first draft of the long thesis, Hugh Everett wrote three short papers, often refered to as his minipapers, for John Wheeler to review. This minipaper, called "Objective vs. Subjective Probability," presents an early formulation of the quantum measurement problem in terms of a conflict between subjective and objective probabilities. Everett ultimately provided a much clearer formulation of the measurement problem in terms of a conflict between different state attributions in the long thesis. The structure of the experimental setup, however, is similar. There are two versions of this minipaper. The present document is an early handwritten draft. It was found in a file labeled "Early drafts," among Everett's papers.

•May 20, 2011•0 citations

"Objective vs Subjective Probability," minipaper 1955

Hugh Everett

Before writing a first draft of the long thesis, Hugh Everett wrote three short papers, often refered to as his minipapers, for John Wheeler to review. This minipaper, called "Objective vs. Subjective Probability," presents an early formulation of the quantum measurement problem in terms of a conflict between subjective and objective probabilities. Everett ultimately provided a much clearer formulation of the measurement problem in terms of a conflict between different state attributions in the long thesis. The structure of the experimental setup, however, is similar. There are two versions of this minipaper. The present document is the condensed and typed version of the minipaper that Wheeler would have seen and commented on.

•May 20, 2011•0 citations

Notes on possible thesis titles, circa 1955

Everett, Hugh

Among Hugh Everett's files were a number of handwritten documents related to the writing of his thesis. Some of them were early notes on ideas and material that ultimately appeared in the long thesis. This document, found loose among Everett's papers, includes brainstorming notes on possible titles for the long thesis. He originally settled on The Theory of the Universal Wave Function, but then changed it to Quantum Mechanics without Probability before distributing drafts to Bohr and others.

•Jan 1, 1955•0 citations

"Wave Mechanics Without Probability," long thesis with handwritten corrections, 1956-1973

Hugh Everett

Hugh Everett's long thesis was submitted to John Archibald Wheeler, his doctoral thesis advisor, in January 1956 under the title "Quantum Mechanics by the Method of the Universal Wave Function.'' It was retitled "Wave Mechanics Without Probability'' and circulated in April of that year to several prominent physicists, including Niels Bohr. Largely due to the criticism of the long thesis by the Copenhagen colleagues, Everett and his advisor John Wheeler rewrote Everett's thesis in the winter of 1957 to produce a much shorter version, which Everett subsequently defended for his Ph.D. under the title "On the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics.'' While the long thesis was organized around the quantum measurement problem and how it is best solved by pure wave mechanics, the short thesis presented Everett's relative-state formulation of pure wave mechanics more as a suitable theory for the development of quantum gravity, cosmology, and field theory. The short thesis no longer contains Everett's chapter on information theory and correlation, his survey of possible solutions to the measurement problem, or his extended discussion of the nature of physical theories. What remains is a distilled presentation of pure wave mechanics, his principle of the fundamental relativity of states, and his derivation of the standard quantum statistics. The short thesis was retitled for publication in Reviews of Modern Physics in July 1957 as "The 'Relative State' Formulation of Quantum Mechanics.'' The version below closely follows the Reviews of Modern Physics article. The long thesis itself was not published until 1973 in the DeWitt and Graham Princeton University Press anthology. It was published under the title "The Theory of the Universal Wave Function." Although Everett did not publish the long thesis, he nonetheless kept a copy of it, and appears to have returned to it periodically to make changes even after the short thesis appeared in print. This document is a scanned version of Everett's personal copy of his long thesis, with his collected comments and changes.

•May 20, 2011•0 citations
Before writing a first draft of the long thesis, Hugh Everett wrote three short papers, often refered to as his minipapers, for John Wheeler to review. This minipaper, ultimately called "Probability in Wave Mechanics," develops the basic premise of Everett's thesis stripped of its formalism, but laced with explanatory metaphors, such as splitting amoebas that share overlapping memories until diverging into separate futures recorded as consistent histories. There are several handwritten drafts of this minipaper and two typed versions, one turned into Wheeler. The present document is an early typed version, with Everett's own corrections written in the margins.
Before writing a first draft of the long thesis, Hugh Everett wrote three short papers, often refered to as his minipapers, for John Wheeler to review. This minipaper, ultimately called "Probability in Wave Mechanics," develops the basic premise of Everett's thesis stripped of its formalism, but laced with explanatory metaphors, such as splitting amoebas that share overlapping memories until diverging into separate futures recorded as consistent histories. There are several handwritten drafts of this minipaper and two typed versions, one turned into Wheeler. The present document is one of the handwritten documents, found in the early drafts file.
Before writing a first draft of the long thesis, Hugh Everett wrote three short papers, often refered to as his minipapers, for John Wheeler to review. This minipaper, ultimately called "Probability in Wave Mechanics," develops the basic premise of Everett's thesis stripped of its formalism, but laced with explanatory metaphors, such as splitting amoebas that share overlapping memories until diverging into separate futures recorded as consistent histories. There are several handwritten drafts of this minipaper and two typed versions, one turned into Wheeler. The present document is the final typed version that Wheeler saw, with Wheeler's comments penciled in the margin.
Before writing a first draft of the long thesis, Hugh Everett wrote three short papers, often refered to as his minipapers, for John Wheeler to review. This minipaper, called "Objective vs. Subjective Probability," presents an early formulation of the quantum measurement problem in terms of a conflict between subjective and objective probabilities. Everett ultimately provided a much clearer formulation of the measurement problem in terms of a conflict between different state attributions in the long thesis. The structure of the experimental setup, however, is similar. There are two versions of this minipaper. The present document is an early handwritten draft. It was found in a file labeled "Early drafts," among Everett's papers.
Before writing a first draft of the long thesis, Hugh Everett wrote three short papers, often refered to as his minipapers, for John Wheeler to review. This minipaper, called "Objective vs. Subjective Probability," presents an early formulation of the quantum measurement problem in terms of a conflict between subjective and objective probabilities. Everett ultimately provided a much clearer formulation of the measurement problem in terms of a conflict between different state attributions in the long thesis. The structure of the experimental setup, however, is similar. There are two versions of this minipaper. The present document is the condensed and typed version of the minipaper that Wheeler would have seen and commented on.
Among Hugh Everett's files were a number of handwritten documents related to the writing of his thesis. Some of them were early notes on ideas and material that ultimately appeared in the long thesis. This document, found loose among Everett's papers, includes brainstorming notes on possible titles for the long thesis. He originally settled on The Theory of the Universal Wave Function, but then changed it to Quantum Mechanics without Probability before distributing drafts to Bohr and others.
Hugh Everett's long thesis was submitted to John Archibald Wheeler, his doctoral thesis advisor, in January 1956 under the title "Quantum Mechanics by the Method of the Universal Wave Function.'' It was retitled "Wave Mechanics Without Probability'' and circulated in April of that year to several prominent physicists, including Niels Bohr. Largely due to the criticism of the long thesis by the Copenhagen colleagues, Everett and his advisor John Wheeler rewrote Everett's thesis in the winter of 1957 to produce a much shorter version, which Everett subsequently defended for his Ph.D. under the title "On the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics.'' While the long thesis was organized around the quantum measurement problem and how it is best solved by pure wave mechanics, the short thesis presented Everett's relative-state formulation of pure wave mechanics more as a suitable theory for the development of quantum gravity, cosmology, and field theory. The short thesis no longer contains Everett's chapter on information theory and correlation, his survey of possible solutions to the measurement problem, or his extended discussion of the nature of physical theories. What remains is a distilled presentation of pure wave mechanics, his principle of the fundamental relativity of states, and his derivation of the standard quantum statistics. The short thesis was retitled for publication in Reviews of Modern Physics in July 1957 as "The 'Relative State' Formulation of Quantum Mechanics.'' The version below closely follows the Reviews of Modern Physics article. The long thesis itself was not published until 1973 in the DeWitt and Graham Princeton University Press anthology. It was published under the title "The Theory of the Universal Wave Function." Although Everett did not publish the long thesis, he nonetheless kept a copy of it, and appears to have returned to it periodically to make changes even after the short thesis appeared in print. This document is a scanned version of Everett's personal copy of his long thesis, with his collected comments and changes.