An analysis of Wigner's friend in the framework of quantum mechanics based on the principle of typicality

Abstract: The notion of probability plays a crucial role in quantum mechanics. It appears in quantum mechanics as the Born rule. In modern mathematics which describes quantum mechanics, however, probability theory means nothing other than measure theory, and therefore any operational characterization of the notion of probability is still missing in quantum mechanics. In our former works [K. Tadaki, arXiv:1804.10174], based on the toolkit of algorithmic randomness, we presented a refinement of the Born rule, called the principle of typicality, for specifying the property of results of measurements in an operational way. The Wigner's friend paradox is a Gedankenexperiment regarding when and where the reduction of the state vector occurs in a chain of the measurements by several observers where the state of the consciousness of each observer is measured by the subsequent observer, except for the last observer in the chain. It is one of the central open questions in the measurement problem of quantum mechanics. In this paper, we make an analysis of the Wigner's friend paradox in the framework of quantum mechanics based on the principle of typicality. We then draw common sense conclusions about the Wigner's friend paradox. In addition, we make a prediction, which is testable in principle, about its variant proposed by Deutsch.