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many-worlds interpretation

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Also known as the many-worlds interpretation, MWI, relative state formulation, relative state interpretation, Everett interpretation

interpretation of quantum mechanics which denies the collapse of the wavefunction

~34 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The quantum-mechanical "Schrödinger's cat" paradox according to the many-worlds interpretation. In this interpretation, every quantum event is a branch point; the cat is both alive and dead, even after the box is opened, but the "alive" and "dead" cats are in different branches of the multiverse, both of which are equally real, but which do not interact with each other.

The many-worlds interpretation (MWI) is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts that the universal wavefunction is objectively real, and that there is no wave function collapse. This implies that all possible outcomes of quantum measurements are physically realized in different "worlds". The evolution of reality as a whole in MWI is rigidly deterministic and dynamically local. Many-worlds is also called the relative state formulation or the Everett interpretation, after physicist Hugh Everett, who first proposed it in 1957. Bryce DeWitt popularized the formulation and named it many-worlds in the 1970s.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “many-worlds interpretation” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.