Title of the project: Observers in quantum superposition: New insights on the quantum measurement problem
Name of the VDSP student: Flavio Del Santo
Project supervised by: Caslav Brukner

I am in my third year of PhD (thus, I started it roughly one thousand and one days ago), I love working at night, and my main scientific interest lies at the edge between theoretical physics and philosophy. I believe that basically everyone who decides to study physics is originally motivated by a genuine fascination towards the great fundamental questions, such as “what is the nature of reality?”, or “do we live in a predetermined Universe or is the future open?”: I feel very fortunate because addressing this kind of questions is what I do for a living.

In Brukner’s group, we investigate the foundations of quantum theory with an information-theoretic and operational approach. In fact, despite the terrific predictive success of quantum theory, physicists are still struggling with providing it with strong foundations. My own doctoral research focuses on the so-called “quantum measurement problem”, namely to determine “how”, “when” and “under what circumstances” physical variables acquire a unique value out of several possibilities. To get new insights on this problem, I investigate extensions of the “Wigner’s friend” thought experiment, which features an observer prepared in a quantum superposition, and in turn observed. Here, I portrayed how I feel in my research activity (captured in the domestic environment during Covid-19 lockdown, on my “magic” carpet): surrounded by literature and overwhelmed by the knowledge therein.

Brukner group