Everett Papers Archive and Commentary

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公共法律111-5)资助的。在量子力学的标准公式中遇到的量子测量问题是由于以薛定谔方程为特征的确定性动力学与仅在测量过程中获得的随机崩溃动力学的不相容造成的。休·埃弗雷特三世著名地提出了通过简单地将崩塌动力学从标准理论中去掉来解决测量问题。他接着认为，标准理论的经验预测可能会重新被认为是观察者的主观经验，而观察者本身也在该理论中受到对待。埃弗雷特称这是量子力学的相对态表述，更通俗地说，也被称为多世界解释。埃弗雷特的提议对物理学家对量子力学的看法产生了深远的影响，但事实证明，很难确定如何最好地理解埃弗雷特的提议。这在一定程度上是因为埃弗雷特只发表了三篇关于这个主题的短文：他的普林斯顿博士论文，一篇与论文基本相同的研究论文，以及论文的更早和更长的版本。然而，新的原生物质已经被发现。除了提供早期工作的草稿外，这份材料还表明，埃弗雷特在发表了关于量子力学的文章很久之后，仍在继续思考量子力学的基础和解释。研究人员将对这些材料进行分类、编目、存档，并以物理学家、历史学家、哲学家和物理学专业学生容易获得的形式放置这些材料。这项研究的三个主要产品将是(1)原始原始材料的分类集合，(2)包含与埃弗雷特对量子力学的解释相关的所有材料的扫描的通用在线档案，以及(3)对埃弗雷特在量子力学基础上的工作最突出的材料的装订编辑集合，以及广泛的传记和概念注释和评论。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The quantum measurement problem encountered in the standard formulation of quantum mechanics results from the incompatibility of the deterministic dynamics characterized by Schrodinger's equation and the stochastic collapse dynamics that obtains only during measurement. Hugh Everett III famously proposed solving the measurement problem by simply dropping the collapse dynamics from the standard theory. He then believed that the empirical predictions of the standard theory might be recaptured as the subjective experiences of observers who are themselves treated within the theory. Everett called this the relative-state formulation of quantum mechanics, also, more popularly, known as the many-worlds interpretation. Everett's proposal has been deeply influential in how physicists have thought about quantum mechanics, but it has proven difficult to determine how best to understand Everett's proposal. This is due, in part, to the fact that Everett only published three short works on the subject: his Princeton Ph.D. thesis, a research paper that is essentially identical to the thesis, and an earlier and longer version of the thesis. New primary material, however, has been discovered. In addition to providing drafts of earlier work, this material indicates that Everett continued to think about the foundations and interpretation of quantum mechanics long after he published on the subject. The investigators will sort, catalog, archive, and put this material in a form that is easily accessible to physicists, historians, philosophers, and students of physics. The three main products of the research will be (1) a sorted collection of original source material, (2) a general online archive containing scans of all of the material relevant to Everett's interpretation of quantum mechanics, and (3) a bound edited collection of the material most salient to Everett's work on the foundations of quantum mechanics with extensive biographical and conceptual notes and commentary.