A quintet of quandaries: five No-Go theorems for relational quantum mechanics

DOI10.1007/S10701-021-00500-6zbMATH Open1483.81010arXiv2107.00670OpenAlexW3203650265WikidataQ113902882 ScholiaQ113902882MaRDI QIDQ2062467FDOQ2062467

Jacques Pienaar

Publication date: 27 December 2021

Published in: Foundations of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Relational quantum mechanics (RQM) proposes an ontology of relations between physical systems, where any system can serve as an `observer' and any physical interaction between systems counts as a `measurement'. Quantities take unique values spontaneously in these interactions, and the occurrence of such `quantum events' is strictly relative to the observing system, making them `relative facts'. The quantum state represents the objective information that one system has about another by virtue of correlations between their physical variables. The ontology of RQM thereby strives to uphold the universality and completeness of quantum theory, while at the same time maintaining that the actualization of each unique quantum event is a fundamental physical event. Can RQM sustain this precarious balancing act? Here we present five no-go theorems that imply it cannot; something has to give way.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.00670

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Information theory (general) (94A15) General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Quantum measurement theory, state operations, state preparations (81P15) Quantum coherence, entanglement, quantum correlations (81P40)

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Cited In (13)

• An attempt to understand relational quantum mechanics
• The relational dissolution of the quantum measurement problems
• Relational quantum mechanics is about facts, not states: a reply to Pienaar and Brukner
• A critical analysis of `Relative facts do not exist: relational quantum mechanics is incompatible with quantum mechanics' by Jay Lawrence, Marcin Markiewicz and Marek Żukowski
• Can a Bohmian be a Rovellian for all practical purposes?
• Convivial solipsism as a maximally perspectival interpretation
• Relational quantum mechanics and contextuality
• How different interpretations of quantum mechanics can enrich each other: the case of the relational quantum mechanics and the modal-Hamiltonian interpretation
• Perspectival quantum realism
• QBism and relational quantum mechanics compared
• Fact-nets: towards a mathematical framework for relational quantum mechanics
• Securing the objectivity of relative facts in the quantum world
• A No-Go Theorem for Joint Property Ascriptions in Modal Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics

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