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.

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Author Profiles

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

Citations of this work

Many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.Lev Vaidman - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The Time in Thermal Time.Eugene Y. S. Chua - 2026 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 57:235-258.
Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.Lev Vaidman - 2002 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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References found in this work

The World in the Wave Function: A Metaphysics for Quantum Physics.Alyssa Ney - 2021 - New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press.
Time and Chance.David Z. Albert - 2000 - Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press.
Realism about the wave function.Eddy Keming Chen - 2019 - Philosophy Compass 14 (7):e12611.

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