UNC-CH PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY COLLOQUIUM
Hans Christian von Baeyer, College of William and Mary
“QBism—The Future of Quantum Physics”
Quantum Bayesianism, punningly abreviated QBism, is a new interpretation of quantum mechanics introduced by Carl Caves, Christopher Fuchs, and Rüdiger Schack in 2001. Without tinkering with the mathematical machinery of the theory — which has reigned unchallenged for almost a century — QBism reinterprets the meaning of its fundamental ingredients, and thereby dispels many of the conundrums and paradoxes that have bedeviled it from the outset. Its most radical innovation is the replacement of the traditional “frequentist” definition of probability by the “Bayesian” definition named after the 18th century clergyman Thomas Bayes. This introductory lecture is suitable for physics majors at all levels.