The Measurement Problem and the Structure of Quantum Mechanics, Part III

Kayoko Awaya, 修三 小川

Kayoko Awaya

W. David Wick

Paper I of this series introduced a nonlinear version of quantum mechanics that blocks cats, and paper II postulated a random part of the wavefunction to explain outcomes in experiments such as Stern-Gerlach or EPRB. However, an ad hoc extra parameter was assumed for the randomness. Here I provide some analytic and simulation evidence that the nonlinear theory exhibits sensitive dependence on initial conditions in measurement scenarios, perhaps implying that the magnitude of randomness required is determined by structural features of the model, and does not require a free parameter.

Jeffrey Bub

The aim of this paper is to consider the consequences of an information-theoretic interpretation of quantum mechanics for the measurement problem. The motivating idea of the interpretation is that the relation between quantum mechanics and the structure of information is analogous to the relation between special relativity and the structure of space-time. Insofar as quantum mechanics deals with a class of probabilistic correlations that includes correlations structurally different from classical correlations, the theory is about the structure of information: the possibilities for representing, manipulating, and communicating information in a genuinely indeterministic quantum world in which measurement outcomes are intrinsically random are different than we thought. Part of the measurement problem is deflated as a pseudo-problem on this view, and the theory has the resources to deal with the remaining part, given certain idealizations in the treatment of macrosystems.

María Esther Burgos

Jeffrey Alan Barrett, David Hodgson

Introduction Part I. Preliminaries: General approach and assumptions Mental events The consensus Part II. Against Mechanism: More and different information Plausible reasoning Consciousness selected by evolution Folk psychology Transcending the code Part III. Quantum Mechanics: Historical outline Some mechanics and mathematics The quantum mechanical state The development of the quantum state Combined systems The measurement problem Quantum theory and reality Part IV. Mind and the world: Outline of a theory of mind The self Time Sketches for a world-view References Author index Subject index.