Collapse and Relativity

Abstract

Ever since we have been in the possession of quantum theories without observers, such as Bohmian mechanics or the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber (GRW) theory of spontaneous wave function collapse, a major challenge in the foundations of quantum mechanics is to devise a relativistic quantum theory without observers. One of the difficulties is to reconcile nonlocality with relativity. I report about recent progress in this direction based on the GRW model: A relativistic version of the model has been devised for the case of N noninteracting (but entangled) particles. A key ingredient was to focus not on the evolution of the wave function but rather on the evolution of the matter in space-time as determined by the wave function.