Does freedom of choice imply that the wave function is real? Q+ online seminar

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• Renner, R (ETH Zurich)
• Tuesday 29 October 2013, 14:00-15:00
• Seminar Room 2, Newton Institute Gatehouse.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Mustapha Amrani.

Mathematical Challenges in Quantum Information

The question whether the quantum-mechanical wave function is “real” has recently attracted considerable interest. More precisely, the question is whether the wave function of a system is uniquely determined by any complete description of its “physical state”. In this talk I will present a simple and self-contained proof that this is indeed the case, under an assumption that one may term “freedom of choice”. It demands that arbitrary measurements can be applied to the system, and that these can be chosen independently of all parameters available at the time of measurement (with respect to any relativistic frame). A possible interpretation of this result is that the wave function of a system is as ``objective or ``real as any other complete description of the system’s state. (This is based on unpublished work in collaboration with Roger Colbeck.)

This talk is part of the Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series series.

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