Measurement outcomes and probability in Everettian quantum mechanics |
| |
Affiliation: | Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, 1879 Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544-1006, USA;Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science 3151 Social Science Plaza A, University of California, Irvine 92697, United States;Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Am Mühlenberg 1, D-14476 Golm, Germany;Dept. of Applied Math and Theoretical Physics and Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TQ, United Kingdom;Universität Bonn, Institut für Philosophie, Am Hof 1, D-53113 Bonn, Germany;Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, United States |
| |
Abstract: | The decision-theoretic account of probability in the Everett or many-worlds interpretation, advanced by David Deutsch and David Wallace, is shown to be circular. Talk of probability in Everett presumes the existence of a preferred basis to identify measurement outcomes for the probabilities to range over. But the existence of a preferred basis can only be established by the process of decoherence, which is itself probabilistic. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|