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:

• Wigner, E., "Remarks on the Mind Body Problem." The Scientist Speculates, L.J. Good, ed. (1962). (Lecture). [Free]
• Frauchiger, D., R. Renner, "Quantum Theory Cannot Consistently Describe the Use of Itself." Nat. Commun. 9 3711 (2018). [arXiv]
• Proietti, M., A. Pickston, F. Graffitti, P. Barrow, D. Kundys, C. Branciard, M. Ringbauer, and A. Fedrizzi, "Experimental Rejection of Observer-Independence in the Quantum World.." (2019). [arXiv]
Note: I can't find it published yet, so if you have seen it in print, please let me know.

2. Other articles we discussed:

• Dyson, F., "Innovation in Physics." Scientific American 199(3), 74 (1955).
• Pusey, M., "An Inconsistent Friend." Nature Physics 14 977 (2018).
• Uncredited, "A Quantum Experiment Suggests There's No Such Thing as Objective Reality." MIT Technology Review (2019).
• Brukner, Č. "A No-Go Theorem for Observer-Independent Facts." Entropy 20 (2018). [arXiv]

3. Related Episodes of Physics Frontiers:

• Physics Frontiers 44: Spooky Action at a Distance.
• Physics Frontiers 33: Retrocausality
• Physics Frontiers 30: The Consistent Histories Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
• Physics Frontiers 18: The 2T Physics of Itzhak Bars
• Physics Frontiers 2: The de Broglie-Bohm Interpretation of Quantum Mechnics

3. Other Podcasts:

• WEP1: The Quantum Bookie

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.

5. Please visit and comment on our subreddit, and if you can help us keep this going by contributing to our Patreon, we'd be grateful.

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