Watching the Clocks: Interpreting the Page-Wootters Formalism and the Internal Quantum Reference Frame Programme
arXiv:2203.06755 · doi:10.1007/s10701-022-00620-7
Abstract
We discuss some difficulties that arise in attempting to interpret the Page-Wootters and Internal Quantum Reference Frames formalisms, then use a 'final measurement' approach to demonstrate that there is a workable single-world realist interpretation for these formalisms. We note that it is necessary to adopt some interpretation before we can determine if the 'reference frames' invoked in these approaches are operationally meaningful, and we argue that without a clear operational interpretation, such reference frames might not be suitable to define an equivalence principle. We argue that the notion of superposition should take into account the way in which an instantaneous state is embedded in ongoing dynamical evolution, and this leads to a more nuanced way of thinking about the relativity of superposition in these approaches. We conclude that typically the operational content of these approaches appears only in the limit as the size of at least one reference system becomes large, and therefore these formalisms have an important role to play in showing how our macroscopic reference frames can emerge out of wholly relational facts.
References in corpus (37)
- Relational Quantum Mechanics
- Reference frames, superselection rules, and quantum information
- Contextuality for preparations, transformations, and unsharp measurements
- Quantum cloning
- The resource theory of quantum reference frames: manipulations and monotones
- On the Consistent Histories Approach to Quantum Mechanics
- How Quantum Mechanics can consistently describe the use of itself
- Quantum theory cannot consistently describe the use of itself
- Quantum mechanics and the covariance of physical laws in quantum reference frames
- The Trinity of Relational Quantum Dynamics
- Quantum Time
- Conditional probabilities with Dirac observables and the problem of time in quantum gravity
- Time from quantum entanglement: an experimental illustration
- A change of perspective: switching quantum reference frames via a perspective-neutral framework
- Quantizing time: Interacting clocks and systems
- Quantum clocks observe classical and quantum time dilation
- Switching internal times and a new perspective on the 'wave function of the universe'
- Quantum superposition of spacetimes obeys Einstein's Equivalence Principle
- Quantum reference frames for general symmetry groups
- Evolution without evolution, and without ambiguities
- Changing quantum reference frames
- How to switch between relational quantum clocks
- Toy Model for a Relational Formulation of Quantum Theory
- A Solution to the Lorentzian Quantum Reality Problem
- Quantum reference frame transformations as symmetries and the paradox of the third particle
- Approximating relational observables by absolute quantities: A quantum accuracy-size trade-off
- Generalized probability rules from a timeless formulation of Wigner's friend scenarios
- Consistent Histories in Quantum Cosmology
- The strange equation of quantum gravity
- Does Quantum Mechanics Clash with the Equivalence Principle - and Does it Matter?
- Quantum Reality via Late Time Photodetection
- Multiple-event probability in general-relativistic quantum mechanics
- Internal quantum reference frames for finite Abelian groups
- Lorentzian Quantum Reality: Postulates and Toy Models
- Unitary-Only Quantum Theory Cannot Consistently Describe the Use of Itself: On the Frauchiger-Renner Paradox
- Communicating without shared reference frames
- A Relativistic GRW Flash Process With Interaction