Many Worlds?
Everett, Quantum Theory, & Reality
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 7 June 2012
- ISBN 9780199655502
- Binding Paperback
- No. of pages636 pages
- Size 234x160x33 mm
- Weight 960 g
- Language English 0
Categories
Short description:
What follows when quantum theory is applied to the whole universe? This is one of the greatest puzzles of modern science. Philosophers and physicists here debate the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics, according to which this universe is one of countlessly many others, constantly branching in time, all of which are real.
MoreLong description:
What does realism about the quantum state imply? What follows when quantum theory is applied without restriction, if need be, to the whole universe? These are the questions which an illustrious team of philosophers and physicists debate in this volume. All the contributors are agreed on realism, and on the need, or the aspiration, for a theory that unites micro- and macroworlds, at least in principle. But the further claim argued by some is that if you allow the Schrödinger equation unrestricted application, supposing the quantum state to be something physically real, then this universe is one of countlessly many others, constantly branching in time, all of which are real. The result is the many worlds theory, also known as the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics.
The contrary claim sees this picture of many worlds as in no sense inherent in quantum mechanics, even when the latter is allowed unrestricted scope and even given that the quantum state itself is something physically real. For this picture of branching worlds fails to make physical sense, let alone common sense, even on its own terms. The status of these worlds, what they are made of, is never adequately explained. Ordinary ideas about time and identity over time become hopelessly compromised. The concept of probability itself is brought into question. This picture of many branching worlds is inchoate, it is a vision, an error. There are realist alternatives to many worlds, some even that preserve the Schrödinger equation unchanged.
Twenty specially written essays, accompanied by commentaries and discussions, examine these claims and counterclaims in depth. They focus first on the question of ontology, the existence of worlds (Part 1 and 2), second on the interpretation of probability (Parts 3 and 4), and third on alternatives or additions to many worlds (Parts 5 and 6). The introduction offers a helpful guide to the arguments for the Everett interpretation, particularly as they have been formulated in the last two decades.
This book provides arguably the most vivid and comprehensive treatment of both state-of-the art developments within and criticism of the Everett interpretation.
Table of Contents:
Many Worlds: an Introduction
1. Why Many Worlds?
Decoherence and Ontology
Quasiclassical Realms
Macroscopic Superpositions, Decoherent Histories, and the Emergence of Hydrodynamical Behaviour
2. Problems with Ontology
Can the world be only wavefunction?
A metaphysician looks at the Everett interpretation
Commentary. Reply to Hawthorne: Physics Before Metaphysics
Transcript 1: ontology
3. Probability in the Everett Interpretation
Chance in the Everett interpretation
A Scandal of Probability Theory
How to prove the Born rule
Everett and Evidence
4. Critical Replies
One World versus Many: the Inadequacy of Everettian Accounts of Evolution, Probability, and Scientific Confirmation
Probability in the Everett picture
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions: Can Savage Salvage Everettian Probability?
Transcript 2: Probability
5. Alternatives to Many Worlds
Decoherence, Einselection, Envariance, and Quantum Darwinism: From Relative States to the Existential Interpretation
Two dogmas about quantum mechanics
Commentary: Rabid Dogma? Comments on Bub and Pitowsky
The Principal Principle and Probability in the Many-Worlds interpretation
Pilot-wave theory: many worlds in denial?
Commentary: Reply to Valentini
6. Not Only Many Worlds
Everett and Wheeler, the Untold Story
Apart from universes
Many Worlds in Context
Time Symmetry and the Many-Worlds Interpretation
Transcript 3: Not (only) many worlds
Bibliography
Many Worlds?: Everett, Quantum Theory, & Reality
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