Incompleteness of Griffiths' consistent histories interpretation

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the incompleteness of Robert Griffiths' consistent histories interpretation of quantum mechanics (QM). Participants explore the implications of this interpretation, its relationship with decoherence, and the criticisms it has faced. The scope includes theoretical considerations, conceptual clarifications, and debates regarding the foundational aspects of quantum mechanics.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants argue that Griffiths' consistent histories interpretation is "intentionally" incomplete, suggesting that this incompleteness allows for flexibility in choosing frameworks for describing quantum systems.
  • There is a proposal that requiring only the real part of the decoherence functional to be zero could simplify the interpretation, although this is challenged by concerns regarding the composition of statistically independent quantum systems.
  • Participants note that criticisms of the histories approach have led to clearer formulations of its concepts, indicating that misunderstandings have historically influenced its development.
  • Some participants express skepticism about the necessity of deriving the Born rule, questioning why it cannot simply be accepted as a postulate of quantum mechanics.
  • Others defend the need for a formal definition of the Born rule, arguing that its reliance on the informal concept of measurement makes it less satisfactory as a postulate compared to other rules in quantum mechanics.
  • There is a discussion about the relationship between consistent histories and the Everett interpretation, with some participants suggesting that the former's intentional incompleteness may serve to prevent misuse in the context of competing interpretations.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express multiple competing views regarding the intentional incompleteness of Griffiths' interpretation, the necessity of deriving the Born rule, and the adequacy of existing postulates in quantum mechanics. The discussion remains unresolved on these points.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight the lack of substantial discussions regarding the composition of statistically independent quantum systems within the consistent histories framework, indicating a potential gap in the interpretation's development.

  • #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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