On Sun, May 15, 2022 at 5:03 AM Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 5/14/2022 4:35 AM, Bruce Kellett wrote: > > > The trouble is that the duplicating machine makes only one copy, so there > is one for Moscow and one for Helsinki. There are no multiple copies in the > original scenario. Changing the nature of the question is not an answer. > > The reason I repeat this is that the Schrodinger equation gives one branch > for each component of the superposition -- one branch for each dimension of > the Hilbert space. So I ask again, how do you accommodate a situation in > which there is a 90% chance of being on one branch and a 10% chance of > being on the other branch, as per the Born rule? Changing the number of > branches (or duplicates) is fine in a general theory, but not in QM. The SE > gives only one branch for each outcome. What you are really saying is that > the SE is inconsistent with the Born rule -- a point I have been making > all along. > > > Even Sean Carroll who is a proponent of MWI says that it's necessary to > associate "weights" or "amplitudes" with branches. I think it's possible > to do it with branch counting if you assume some sufficiently large number > are available to split...but that's not much different than assigning > amplitudes. > As I have pointed out, no finite number can be "sufficiently large". You need an infinite number of branches, and then you have moved well outside the domain of the SE, since the SE only ever predicts a finite number of branches. You cannot get the Born rule from the SE applied to a normal wave function. The SE does not assign probabilities, those have to be imposed as an additional assumption. Assign weights to branches all you like, but you then have to show that these weights correspond to normal probabilities in the prediction of experimental results. Bruce -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAFxXSLSOtKRxZ0BAWN7ZXi%3DBa2dSJD-paS4RPdg5xy56uqdpTA%40mail.gmail.com.
