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Copenhagen vs Everett, Teleportation, and ER=EPR

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Copenhagen vs Everett, Teleportation, and ER=EPR

Author: Leonard Susskind Date: April 23, 2016

Executive Summary

This paper explores the deep conceptual implications of the ER=EPR conjecture on the fundamental interpretation of quantum mechanics. Susskind proposes that the Copenhagen interpretation (featuring discontinuous wave-function collapse) and Everett’s Relative State Formulation (popularly known as the Many-Worlds interpretation, featuring continuous unitary evolution and branching entanglements) are complementary descriptions, dual to one another when viewed through the lens of quantum gravity and wormhole geometry.

Key Concepts

1. ER = EPR

The principle that Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) quantum non-local entanglement and Einstein-Rosen bridges (wormholes in General Relativity) are fundamentally the same phenomenon. Susskind differentiates two views:

  • Modest View: Entangled black holes are connected by wormholes, making entanglement a “fungible resource” (transmutable into geometric connections).
  • Ambitious View: Even simple Bell pairs (like two entangled spins) are connected by microscopic, Planckian wormholes.

2. Copenhagen vs Everett via Wigner’s Friend

To illustrate the interpretations, Susskind relies on a modified Wigner’s Friend experiment:

  • In the Copenhagen Interpretation, the observer’s measurement irreversibly collapses the wave function, “snipping” the physical connection between subsystems.
  • In Everett’s Relative State Formulation, measurement does not cause collapse but instead entangles the observer with the system, creating a tripartite entangled state without severing the wave function’s continuity.

3. The GHZ-Brane

Susskind maps the Wigner’s Friend thought experiment into a tensor network of black holes to merge the two interpretations. By treating the observers and the observed system as entangled black holes, their interaction forms a GHZ state (Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state). The geometric center of the wormhole structure connecting these tripartite entangled systems is what Susskind dubs a GHZ-brane. This theoretical object reflects the mathematical duality between the two interpretations of quantum mechanics.

4. Teleportation through the Wormhole

The paper uses the fungibility of entanglement to frame quantum teleportation geometrically. If Alice and Bob share entangled black holes (an ERB), the classical data sent during teleportation carries no local information about the state being teleported. Instead, according to ER=EPR, the actual quantum state physically travels through the wormhole connecting their black holes.

Impact

Susskind suggests that to truly unify quantum mechanics and gravity, physics must abandon the notion of an asymptotic “uber-observer” (which the Copenhagen interpretation relies upon) and instead formulate a universe composed of a highly interconnected network of entangled subsystems, effectively embracing the geometry implied by ER=EPR.

The full conceptual machinery of this conjecture is documented in ER_EPR_Conjecture.

  • ER_EPR_Conjecture — core concept: wormholes and quantum entanglement as dual descriptions

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