Saunders, Simon (2025) Physical Probability and Locality in No-Collapse Quantum Theory. [Preprint]
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Abstract
Probability is distinguished into two kinds: physical and epistemic, also, but less accurately, called objective and subjective. Simple postulates are given for physical probability, the only novel one being a locality condition. Translated into no-collapse quantum mechanics, without hidden variables, the postulates imply that the elements in any equiamplitude expansion of the quantum state are equiprobable. Such expansions therefore provide ensembles of microstates that can be used to define probabilities in the manner of frequentism, in von Mises’ sense (where the probability of P is the frequency of occurrence of P in a suitable ensemble). The result is the Born rule. Since satisfying our postulates, and in particular the locality condition (meaning no action-at-a-distance), these probabilities for no-collapse quantum mechanics are perfectly local, even though they violate Bell inequalities. The latter can be traced to a violation of outcome independence, used to derive the inequalities. But in no-collapse theory that is not a locality condition; it is a criterion for entanglement, not locality.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Additional Information: | To appear in Journal of Physics | ||||||
| Keywords: | Probability, quantum, Born rule, Everett, Many Worlds, Bell, Locality | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Structure of Theories |
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| Depositing User: | simon saunders | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 11 May 2025 15:09 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 11 May 2025 15:09 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 25281 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Determinism/Indeterminism Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics General Issues > Structure of Theories |
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| Date: | May 2025 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/25281 |
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