Dear all,
please see below for the announcement of a video lecture by Adrian Kent. Unfortunately, the room is rather small, I hope though that we will be able to squeeze enough chairs in...
Best wishes, Matthias.
Time & Date: Thursday, 31st of May, 15:15 Location: HG D22 (ETH Main building)
Speaker: Adrian Kent (University of Cambridge)
Title: Many Worlds Quantum Theory and Problems of Probability
Abstract: The idea that purely unitary quantum theory has a natural and direct realist interpretation in terms of multiple branching worlds was first proposed by Everett in 1957. Although many theoretical physicists now believe the essential idea is the right way to understand quantum theory, there has never been any consensus on what, exactly, this entails or how, exactly, it can be supported by experimental evidence. In this talk I will first review some of the motivations for taking many-worlds quantum theory seriously and some of the idea's generally agreed implications. I will then review some problems with the idea, focussing in particular on the difficulty in either making sense of, or side-stepping, the concept of probability in many-worlds theories.
Matthias Christandl Institute for Theoretical Physics ETH Zurich http://www.itp.phys.ethz.ch/people/christandl/index