학술논문

Making sense of relativistic Wigner friend scenarios: a problem for unitary accounts of quantum measurements ?
Document Type
Working Paper
Source
Subject
Quantum Physics
Language
Abstract
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.
Comment: Main changes: figure added; focus narrowed to the main issue of v1 (effect of state update in different reference frames), with enlarged analysis