Quantum (Aug 2022)

Events in quantum mechanics are maximally non-absolute

  • George Moreno,
  • Ranieri Nery,
  • Cristhiano Duarte,
  • Rafael Chaves

DOI
https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2022-08-24-785
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6
p. 785

Abstract

Read online

The notorious quantum measurement problem brings out the difficulty to reconcile two quantum postulates: the unitary evolution of closed quantum systems and the wave-function collapse after a measurement. This problematics is particularly highlighted in the Wigner's friend thought experiment, where the mismatch between unitary evolution and measurement collapse leads to conflicting quantum descriptions for different observers. A recent no-go theorem has established that the (quantum) statistics arising from an extended Wigner's friend scenario is incompatible when one try to hold together three innocuous assumptions, namely no-superdeterminism, parameter independence and absoluteness of observed events. Building on this extended scenario, we introduce two novel measures of non-absoluteness of events. The first is based on the EPR2 decomposition, and the second involves the relaxation of the absoluteness hypothesis assumed in the aforementioned no-go theorem. To prove that quantum correlations can be maximally non-absolute according to both quantifiers, we show that chained Bell inequalities (and relaxations thereof) are also valid constraints for Wigner's experiment.