Probabilities from envariance?

Abstract

Zurek claims to have derived Born's rule noncircularly in the context of an ontological no-collapse interpretation of quantum states, without any "deus ex machina imposition of the symptoms of classicality." After a brief review of Zurek's derivation it is argued that this claim is exaggerated if not wholly unjustified. In order to demonstrate that Born's rule arises noncircularly from deterministically evolving quantum states, it is not sufficient to assume that quantum states are somehow associated with probabilities and then prove that these probabilities are given by Born's rule. One has to show how irreducible probabilities can arise in the context of an ontological no-collapse interpretation of quantum states. It is argued that the reason why all attempts to do this have so far failed is that quantum states are fundamentally algorithms for computing correlations between possible measurement outcomes, rather than evolving ontological states.

To appear in IJQI; 9 pages, LaTeX

References in corpus (9)

• Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical
• Quantum states and generalized observables: a simple proof of Gleason's theorem
• Decoherence, Einselection, and the Existential Interpretation (the Rough Guide)
• Environment - Assisted Invariance, Causality, and Probabilities in Quantum Physics
• Why the laws of physics are just so
• This elusive objective existence
• Do quantum states evolve? Apropos of Marchildon's remarks
• Is the end in sight for theoretical pseudophysics?
• Reflections on the Spatiotemporal Aspects of the Quantum World

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Decoherence, the measurement problem, and interpretations of quantum mechanics
• Quantum Decoherence
• On Zurek's derivation of the Born rule
• Experimental motivation and empirical consistency in minimal no-collapse quantum mechanics
• The measurement postulates of quantum mechanics are operationally redundant
• Any modification of the Born rule leads to a violation of the purification and local tomography principles
• Complete "Born's rule" from "environment-assisted invariance" in terms of pure-state twin unitaries
• Born Rule and Noncontextual Probability
• This elusive objective existence
• Derivation of the quantum probability law from minimal non-demolition measurement
• Probability in modal interpretations of quantum mechanics
• A Theory of Quantum Observation and the Emergence of the Born Rule