On Wednesday 10th October we had Dr. Luis  Masanes from within the UCL AMOPP group give a very interesting seminar. His talk was focused on the fundamental questions posed by the measurement postulates of quantum mechanics, and how they are redundant given the other postulates that form the basis of quantum mechanics. Dr. Masanes was kind enough to provide a copy of his slides here and the abstract can be seen below.

The Measurement Postulates of Quantum Mechanics are Redundant

Understanding the core content of quantum mechanics requires us to disentangle the hidden logical relationships between the postulates of this theory. The theorem presented in this work shows that the mathematical structure of quantum measurements, the formula for assigning outcome probabilities (Born’s rule) and the post-measurement state-update rule, can be deduced from the other quantum postulates, often referred to as “unitary quantum mechanics”. This result unveils a deep connection between the dynamical and probabilistic parts of quantum mechanics, and it brings us one step closer to understand what is this theory telling us about the inner workings of Nature.