Many Retrocausal Worlds: A Foundation for Quantum Probability
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866912625333370880 |
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| author | Ridley, Michael |
| author_facet | Ridley, Michael |
| contents | Recent accounts of probability in the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics are vulnerable due to their dependence on probability theory per se. For this reason, the many worlds interpretation continues to suffer from the incoherence and quantitative problems. After discussing various theories of probability, I discuss the incoherence problem and argue that self-locating probabilities centered in time-extended worlds can solve it. I then discuss and refute various solutions to the quantitative problem. I argue that the only tenable way to ground these self-locating probabilities is to identify the mathematical form of the Born rule as a generic pattern in a time-extended wavefunction, and to distribute degrees of belief over the region of wavefunction occupied by this pattern. I then outline a time-symmetric version of quantum mechanics - the Fixed Point Formulation - which, interpreted within a time-symmetric Everettian framework, can provide the foundation for a theory of quantum probability. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_02505 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Many Retrocausal Worlds: A Foundation for Quantum Probability Ridley, Michael Quantum Physics Recent accounts of probability in the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics are vulnerable due to their dependence on probability theory per se. For this reason, the many worlds interpretation continues to suffer from the incoherence and quantitative problems. After discussing various theories of probability, I discuss the incoherence problem and argue that self-locating probabilities centered in time-extended worlds can solve it. I then discuss and refute various solutions to the quantitative problem. I argue that the only tenable way to ground these self-locating probabilities is to identify the mathematical form of the Born rule as a generic pattern in a time-extended wavefunction, and to distribute degrees of belief over the region of wavefunction occupied by this pattern. I then outline a time-symmetric version of quantum mechanics - the Fixed Point Formulation - which, interpreted within a time-symmetric Everettian framework, can provide the foundation for a theory of quantum probability. |
| title | Many Retrocausal Worlds: A Foundation for Quantum Probability |
| topic | Quantum Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.02505 |