Gao, Shan (2025) Global Branching and Everettian Probability: A Critique of Sebens and Carroll’s Proposal. [Preprint]
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
mwi-selflocating2025v9.pdf Download (203kB) |
Abstract
Sebens and Carroll (2018) propose that self-locating uncertainty, constrained by their Epistemic Separability Principle (ESP), derives Born rule probabilities in Everettian quantum mechanics. Their global branching model, however, leads to local amplitudes lost, undermining this derivation. This paper argues that global branching’s premature splitting of observers, such as Bob in an EPR-Bohm setup, yields local pure states devoid of amplitude coefficients essential for Born rule probabilities. Despite their innovative framework, further issues with global branching—conflicts with decoherence, relativistic violations via physical state changes, and constraints on superposition measurements—render it empirically inadequate. Defenses, such as invoking global amplitudes, fail to resolve these flaws. Additionally, observer-centric proofs of the Born rule neglect objective statistics, weakening their empirical grounding. This analysis underscores the need to reconsider branching mechanisms to secure a robust foundation for Everettian probabilities.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators: |
|
||||||
| Keywords: | Many-Worlds Interpretation; Global Branching; Everettian Probability; Self-Locating Uncertainty; Born Rule; Special Relativity | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory |
||||||
| Depositing User: | Prof. Shan Gao | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 25 Jun 2025 14:14 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2025 14:14 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 25800 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory |
||||||
| Date: | 25 June 2025 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/25800 |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}