Probabilities without uncertainty in the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics

Following the work of D. Deutsch, D. Wallace has proposed a derivation of the Born rule in the context of the Everett interpretation. However, it seems to require a genuine uncertainty of the observers, which is difficult to justify in this deterministic framework. H. Greaves proposed another point of view, which does not imply any uncertainty of the observers, but renders the Deutsch-Wallace derivation pointless. I will propose a slightly different framework (without any uncertainty of the observers), which consists in interpreting directly the squared modulus of the amplitudes as proportions of worlds (without supposing that any counting of discrete worlds can be defined); it requires to examine the principles of rationality associated with the notion of proportion of observers in thought experiments involving non-quantum fission of the observers. I will then analyse the role of the Deutsch-Wallace derivation in this framework, which consists in an ordering of the rationality principles in the quantum splitting case (distinguishing the primitive principles from the derived ones).

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Additional Info

Field Value
Source Young Quantum Meetings
Author Barton, Adrien
Maintainer CCSD
Last Updated May 14, 2026, 06:45 (UTC)
Created May 14, 2026, 06:45 (UTC)
Identifier halshs-00792089
Language en
contributor Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques (IHPST) ; Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UP1)-Département d'Etudes Cognitives - ENS-PSL (DEC) ; École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) ; Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) ; Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
coverage Bruxelles, Belgium
creator Barton, Adrien
date 2005-03-14T00:00:00
harvest_object_id 9f0da893-7c10-4b7f-8730-52eae96c727f
harvest_source_id 3374d638-d20b-4672-ba96-a23232d55657
harvest_source_title test moissonnage SELUNE
metadata_modified 2024-12-09T00:00:00
set_spec type:COMM