Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Wigner’s friend and relational objectivity

The ‘Wigner’s friend’ thought experiment illustrates the puzzling nature of quantum measurement. Časlav Brukner discusses how recent results suggest that in quantum theory the objectivity of measurement outcomes is relative to observation and observer.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Illustration of the two ‘bubbles’: the laboratory of Wigner’s friend and that of Wigner.

References

  1. Wigner, E. P. Remarks on the mind-body question. In The Scientist Speculates (ed. Good, I. J.) 284–302 (Heinemann, 1961).

  2. Brukner, Č. On the quantum measurement problem. In Quantum[Un]Speakables II: Half a Century of Bell’s Theorem (eds Bertlmann, R. & Zeilinger, A.) 95–117 (Springer, 2017).

  3. Frauchiger, D. & Renner, R. Quantum theory cannot consistently describe the use of itself. Nat. Commun. 9, 3711 (2018).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Brukner, Č. A no-go theorem for observer-independent facts. Entropy 20, 350 (2018).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Bong, K. W. et al. A strong no-go theorem on the Wigner’s friend paradox. Nat. Phys. 16, 1199–1205 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Proietti, M. et al. Experimental test of local observer independence. Sci. Adv. 5, eaaw9832 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Fuchs, C. A. & Schack, R. Quantum-Bayesian coherence. Rev. Mod. Phys. 85, 1693 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Rovelli, C. Relational quantum mechanics. Int. J. Theor. Phys. 35, 1637–1678 (1996).

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Healey, R. The Quantum Revolution in Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2017).

  10. Cavalcanti, E. G. The view from a Wigner bubble. Found. Phys. 51, 39 (2021).

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Časlav Brukner.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Brukner, Č. Wigner’s friend and relational objectivity. Nat Rev Phys 4, 628–630 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-022-00505-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-022-00505-8

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing