Remarks on Space-Time and Locality in Everett’s Interpretation

Abstract

Interpretations that follow Everett's idea that (at some level ofdescription) the universal wave function contains a multiplicityof coexisting realities, usually claim to give a completely localaccount of quantum mechanics. That is, they claim to give an accountthat avoids both a non-local collapse of the wave function, and theaction at a distance needed in hidden variable theories in orderto reproduce the quantum mechanical violation of the Bell inequalities.In this paper, I sketch how these claims can be substantiated intwo renderings of Everett's ideas, namely the many-minds interpretationof Albert and Loewer, and versions of many-worlds interpretationsthat rely on the concepts of the theory of decoherence.