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Observers and Locality in Everett Quantum Field Theory

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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 (Rubin in 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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  1. Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 244 Wood Street, Lexington, MA, 02420-9185, USA

    Mark A. Rubin

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Correspondence to Mark A. Rubin.

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This work was sponsored by the Air Force under Air Force Contract FA8721-05-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the U.S. Government.

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Rubin, M.A. Observers and Locality in Everett Quantum Field Theory. Found Phys 41, 1236–1262 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-011-9543-6

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