The Quantum Many-Worlds Interpretation, Simply Told
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2602.09272 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 9 Feb 2026] Title:The Quantum Many-Worlds Interpretation, Simply Told Authors:Brian C. Odom View a PDF of the paper titled The Quantum Many-Worlds Interpretation, Simply Told, by Brian C. Odom View PDF Abstract:The many-worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics poses a simple question. What would reality look like if everything evolved in time according to the same quantum equations? There is an attractive consistency to treating microscopic objects, measuring devices, and observers all on the same footing, but do the predictions match our observations? Here, we build a model for a bolometer detector making a which-path measurement in an atom interferometer. We discuss the MWI claim that, while both measurement outcomes occur in each experimental iteration, an observer will experience only one outcome or the other, with a probability consistent with experiment. Finally, we discuss how MWI does not have action at a distance. This article is written to be accessible to anyone with an undergraduate course in quantum mechanics. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2602.09272 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2602.09272v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.09272 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Brian Odom [view email] [v1] Mon, 9 Feb 2026 23:14:09 UTC (3,590 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled The Quantum Many-Worlds Interpretation, Simply Told, by Brian C. OdomView PDFTeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-02 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)