Does it Make Sense to Speak of Self-Locating Uncertainty in the Universal Wave Function? Remarks on Sebens and Carroll

Abstract

Following a proposal of Vaidman, Sebens and Carroll have argued that in Everettian (i.e. purely unitary) quantum theory, observers are uncertain, before they complete their observation, about which Everettian branch they are on. They argue further that this solves the problem of making sense of probabilities within Everettian quantum theory, even though the theory itself is deterministic. We note some problems with these arguments.

arXiv commentMinor expansion of conclusions at request of referee. To appear in Foundations of Physics

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• Against Many-Worlds Interpretations
• The Objective Past of a Quantum Universe: Redundant Records of Consistent Histories
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• The Quantum Measurement Problem: A Review of Recent Trends
• Everett's Missing Postulate and the Born Rule
• Probability, Preclusion and Biological Evolution in Heisenberg-Picture Everett Quantum Mechanics
• Decoherence, Branching, and the Born Rule in a Mixed-State Everettian Multiverse
• QBians Do Not Exist
• Objective Probability and the Mind-Body Relation
• Observations of wavefunction collapse and the retrospective application of the Born rule