Relational quantum mechanics

Relational quantum mechanics

The essential idea behind relational quantum mechanics, following E47N50 the precedent of special relativity, is that different observers may give different accounts of the same series of events: for example, to one observer at a given point in time, a system may be in a single, collapsed eigenstate, while to another observer PS2831-4 at the same time, it may be in a superposition of two or more states. Consequently, if quantum mechanics is to be a complete theory, relational quantum mechanics argues that the notion of state describes not the observed system itself, but the relationship, or correlation, between GT40T301 the system and its observer(s). The state vector of conventional quantum mechanics becomes a description of the correlation of some degrees of freedom in the observer, with respect to the observed system. However, it is held by relational quantum mechanics that this applies to all physical objects, whether MJ1200 or not they are conscious or macroscopic. Any measurement event is seen simply as an ordinary physical interaction, an establishment of the sort of correlation discussed above. Thus the physical content of the theory has to do not with objects themselves, but the relations between them.An independent relational approach to FA5322 quantum mechanics was developed in analogy with David Bohm's elucidation of special relativity, in which a detection event is regarded as establishing a relationship between the quantized field and the detector. The inherent ambiguity associated with applying Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is subsequently avoided.