On the Ollivier-Poulin-Zurek definition of objectivity

Abstract

The Ollivier-Poulin-Zurek definition of objectivity provides a philosophical basis for the environment as witness formulation of decoherence theory and hence for quantum Darwinism. It is shown that no account of the reference of the key terms in this definition can be given that does not render the definition either empty or circular. It is argued that this is not the fault of the language used, but of the assumption that the laws of physics are independent of Hilbert-space decomposition. All evidence suggests that this latter assumption is true. If it is, decoherence cannot explain the emergence of classicality.

To appear in Axiomathes

References in corpus (10)

• Quantum Darwinism
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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Building the Observer into the System: Toward a Realistic Description of Human Interaction with the World
• Do qubits dream of entangled sheep? Quantum measurement without classical output
• Decompositional equivalence: A fundamental symmetry underlying quantum theory