Decoherence framework for Wigner's friend experiments

TL;DR

This paper introduces a decoherence-based framework for Wigner's friend experiments, explaining how environmental monitoring leads to definite outcomes and addressing issues of consistency and testability in quantum measurement scenarios.

Contribution

It proposes a unitary evolution framework incorporating environment-induced decoherence, clarifying measurement outcomes and resolving inconsistencies in extended Wigner's friend experiments.

Findings

External interference affects internal observers' memories

The framework aligns with recent extended Wigner's friend proposals

It limits the feasibility of testing with conscious beings

Abstract

The decoherence interpretation of quantum measurements is applied to Wigner's friend experiments. A framework in which all the experimental outcomes arise from unitary evolutions is proposed. Within it, a measurement is not completed until an uncontrolled environment monitorizes the state composed by the system, the apparatus and the observer. The (apparent) wave-function collapse and the corresponding randomness result from tracing out this environment; it is thus the ultimate responsible for the emergence of definite outcomes. Two main effects arise from this fact. First, external interference measurements, trademark of Wigner's friend experiments, modify the memory records of the internal observers; this framework provides a univocal protocol to calculate all these changes. Second, it can be used to build a consistent scenario for the recenly proposed extended versions of the Wigner's friend experiment. Regarding [D. Frauchiger and R. Renner, {\em Quantum theory cannot consistently describe the use of itself}, Nat. Comm. {\bf 9}, 3711 (2018)], this framework shows that the agents' claims become consistent if the changes in their memories are properly taken into account. Furthermore, the particular setup discussed in [C. Brukner, {\em A no-go theorem for observer-indepdendent facts}, Entropy {\bf 20}, 350 (2018)] cannot be tested against the decoherence framework, because it does not give rise to well-defined outcomes according to this formalism. A variation of this setup, devised to fill this gap, makes it possible to assign joint truth values to the observations made by all the agents. This framework also narrows down the requisites for such experiments, making them virtually impossible to apply to conscious (human) beings. Notwithstanding, it also opens the door to future relizations on quantum machines.