Making sense of relativistic Wigner friend scenarios: a problem for unitary accounts of quantum measurements ?

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Allam, J., Matzkin, A.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Allam, J.
Matzkin, A.
author_facet Allam, J.
Matzkin, A.
contents Wigner-friend scenarios -- in which external agents describe a closed laboratory containing a friend making a measurement -- highlight the difficulties inherent to quantum theory when accounting for measurements. In non-relativistic scenarios, the difficulty is to accommodate unitary evolution for a closed system with a definite outcome obtained by the friend. In relativistic scenarios the tensions between quantum theory and relativity induce additional constraints. A generic property of relativistic scenarios is the frame-dependence of state update upon a measurement. Based on a definite example, we will show that this property leads to inconsistent accounts for outcomes obtained in different reference frames. We will further argue that these results point to some fundamental inadequacy when attempting to model actions taken by a complex agent as unitary operations made on simple wavefunctions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_04167
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Making sense of relativistic Wigner friend scenarios: a problem for unitary accounts of quantum measurements ?
Allam, J.
Matzkin, A.
Quantum Physics
Wigner-friend scenarios -- in which external agents describe a closed laboratory containing a friend making a measurement -- highlight the difficulties inherent to quantum theory when accounting for measurements. In non-relativistic scenarios, the difficulty is to accommodate unitary evolution for a closed system with a definite outcome obtained by the friend. In relativistic scenarios the tensions between quantum theory and relativity induce additional constraints. A generic property of relativistic scenarios is the frame-dependence of state update upon a measurement. Based on a definite example, we will show that this property leads to inconsistent accounts for outcomes obtained in different reference frames. We will further argue that these results point to some fundamental inadequacy when attempting to model actions taken by a complex agent as unitary operations made on simple wavefunctions.
title Making sense of relativistic Wigner friend scenarios: a problem for unitary accounts of quantum measurements ?
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.04167