Measurement outcomes and probability in Everettian quantum mechanics
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.
- Publication:
-
Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
- Pub Date:
- 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.shpsb.2006.05.003
- Bibcode:
- 2007SHPMP..38..153B
- Keywords:
-
- Quantum mechanics;
- Everett interpretation;
- Many-worlds interpretation;
- Decoherence;
- Probability