Please refer to this page if you want to use my work.
MANY FACES OF WIGNER
Wigner’s Friend thought experiment and its various extensions are imaginary scenarios which challenge the formal foundations of quantum theory (or any other physical theory, really). A formal theory is built up on a number of assumptions which apply to the systems that the theory is trying to describe. For example, the foundations of math include assumptions (also called axioms) on how the sequence of natural numbers is formed, and how basic operations, like addition and subtraction, can be applied to them. Quantum theory is applied to describe physical systems, like atoms – but nothing in the mathematical formalism of the theory indicates that it is applicable to only atoms. It is possible it can also be applied to larger systems, like you and me. The technology required to prove this statement is (yet?) beyond us. However, we can cook up imaginary scenarios where we test certain aspects of the theory and what happens if the users of the theory [you can think of a scientist in a lab manipulating quantum systems] are also systems described within the theory.
One of the types of manipulating quantum systems is measurement. In a classical/normal world, this is the same operation as, for example, measuring the distance between your bed and the wall to decide on a correct nightstand to buy in IKEA. In quantum mechanics, this operation is less intuitive – carrying out a measurement on a system can disturb it. [Imagine what a nightmare it would be if the width of your future nightstand changed every time you measured the distance!] Wigner’s Friend-type scenarios include an indirect observation of such quantum measurement.
These scenarios were a primary subject of my research for many years, and I’ve been illustrating them ever since I started. Below is a selection of figures [most of which can also be found in the papers I’ve co-authored].
QUANTUMVERSE
This is a series of drawings I did in 2022-2023 which depict my friends and colleagues as fantastical characters. Attention: the powers are highly correlated with their areas of research! 😉
