Decoherence, branching, and the Born rule in a mixed-state Everettian multiverse

Synthese 205 (4):1-32 (2025)
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Abstract

In Everettian quantum mechanics, justifications for the Born rule appeal to self-locating uncertainty or decision theory. Such justifications have focused exclusively on a pure-state Everettian multiverse, represented by a wave function. Recent works in quantum foundations suggest that it is viable to consider a mixed-state Everettian multiverse, represented by a (mixed-state) density matrix. Here, we develop the conceptual foundations for decoherence and branching in a mixed-state multiverse, and extend arguments for the Born rule to this setting. This extended framework provides a unification of 'classical' and 'quantum' probabilities, and additional theoretical benefits, for the Everettian picture.

Author Profiles

Eugene Y. S. Chua
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Eddy Keming Chen
University of California, San Diego

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