Saturday, September 21, 2019

Wigner's Friend

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Recorded: 7/18/2019 Released: 9/21/2019

Randy tells Jim about an experiment that purports to have enacted a test of the Wigner's Friend argument -- one that Jim never really cared for. The experiment uses a double Aspect experiment to test whether non-quantum conclusions can be made from multiple experiments on entangled photons. This one is important: according to Wigner, your soul is at stake.
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Notes:

1. The papers we read for this program:

2. Other articles we discussed:


3. Related Episodes of Physics Frontiers:


3. Other Podcasts:
4. Some books we mentioned:
  • Aharonov and Rohrlich, Quantum Paradoxes. (Review) An interesting depiction of quantum mechanics that introduces quantum phenomena by way of pseudo-paradoxes: things we think shouldn't happen, but do in quantum theory. This book was used for our first attempt at a podcast.
  • Bell, Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics. (Review) A selection of articles by John Bell, including those where he introduces his famous theorem that provided the impetus for the Aspect experiment.
  • Rae, Quantum Physics: Illusion or Reality?. I remember finding this to be an interesting popular book on quantum mechanics, and it's a Canto imprint -- one of my favorite book series.
  • Bars and Terning, Extra Dimensions in Space and Time (Review) Descriptions of the way high-energy theorists look at space and time, mainly in terms of string theory and symmetries, as I recall.
  • Mermin, Boojums All the Way Through. David Mermin's automemoirgraphy -- which is why I said his renaming Quantum Bayesianism as QBism was evidence of his mercurial personality.


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