Why probability appears in quantum theory

摘要

Early in the development of quantum theory, Bohr introduced what came to be called the Copenhagen interpretation. Specifically, the square of the absolute value of the wave function was to be used as a probability density. There followed lengthy arguments about this ranging from alternative universes to Schr?dinger's cat. Einstein famously remarked I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice. The purpose of this paper is to present a mathematical model of the measuring process that shows that the Copenhagen interpretation can actually follow from the fact that the time development of quantum systems is governed by the usual one parameter group of unitary transformations eiHt and that probability enters into the theory in the way it usually does in physics, namely, by having a large number of deterministic equations that can only be handled probabilistically. In the literature on the measuring problem, various arguments are presented to show that the above outlined plan will not work so we will start with some comments on the errors in those arguments.