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arXiv · 0909.2673

Observers and Locality in Everett Quantum Field Theory

Mark A. Rubin
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Abstract

A model for measurement in collapse-free nonrelativistic fermionic quantum field theory is presented. In addition to local propagation and effectively-local interactions, the model incorporates explicit representations of localized observers, thus extending an earlier model of entanglement generation in Everett quantum field theory [M. A. Rubin, Found. Phys. 32, 1495-1523 (2002)]. Transformations of the field operators from the Heisenberg picture to the Deutsch-Hayden picture, involving fictitious auxiliary fields, establish the locality of the model. The model is applied to manifestly-local calculations of the results of measurements, using a type of sudden approximation and in the limit of massive systems in narrow-wavepacket states. Detection of the presence of a spin-1/2 system in a given spin state by a freely-moving two-state observer illustrates the features of the model and the nonperturbative computational methodology. With the help of perturbation theory the model is applied to a calculation of the quintessential "nonlocal" quantum phenomenon, spin correlations in the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm experiment.

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Mark A. Rubin. 2011-02-23. Observers and Locality in Everett Quantum Field Theory. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-011-9543-6

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