Incompleteness of Griffiths' consistent histories interpretation

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SUMMARY

The forum discussion centers on Robert Griffiths' interpretation of consistent histories in quantum mechanics, which is characterized as "intentionally" incomplete. The discussion highlights the decoherence condition, specifically the requirement that the decoherence functional D(α,β) equals zero for all α≠β, as a pivotal aspect of Griffiths' approach. Critics argue that this incompleteness necessitates a more thorough examination of the composition of statistically independent quantum systems, which is often overlooked. The dialogue emphasizes the importance of clarity in the foundational concepts of quantum mechanics and critiques the informal definitions surrounding measurement in the context of the Born rule.

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  • Understanding of quantum mechanics principles
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  • Knowledge of the Born rule and its implications
  • Basic grasp of quantum logic and consistent histories interpretation
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Quantum physicists, researchers in quantum foundations, and students of advanced quantum mechanics will benefit from this discussion, particularly those interested in the philosophical implications of quantum interpretations and the formalism of consistent histories.

  • #121
Fra said:
what I am concerned with is singling out he use of real numbers (which complex number rely of also of course). This is a problem if you consider the IGUS to have limited capacity, or a bound. Then how can such a IGUS represent the continuum? This - for me - is a bigger problem. I expect the continuum model, to be a limiting case of when a LARGE IGUS describes a small system.
The limit is rather the assumption of a state that can be "reproduced arbitrarily often". If you go to the description of bigger and bigger systems, then this assumption becomes more and more ridiculous. So the size of the IGUS is less problematic than the size of the system it tries to describe.

CH doesn't seem well suited for studying such accuracy issues. The information based interpretations (and also the thermal interpretation) are better suited for that. For example, Scott also points out in his post an exponential accuracy issue with using correlations between classical measurement results for measuring nonlocal states. (And this issue translates into that the state preparation and measurements have to be repeated ridiculously often.) Quantum memory could provide an exponential advantage here, but I once raised doubts whether preparation procedures are really as accurately repeatable as required for such results.
 

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