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Updated: Jan 19, 2026

A Psychophysics Paradigm for the Collection and Analysis of Similarity Judgments
Published on: March 1, 2022
Experimental test of local observer independence
Massimiliano Proietti1, Alexander Pickston1, Francesco Graffitti1
1Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK.
Abstract:
The scientific method relies on facts, established through repeated measurements and agreed upon universally, independently of who observed them. In quantum mechanics the objectivity of observations is not so clear, most markedly exposed in Wigner's eponymous thought experiment where two observers can experience seemingly different realities. The question whether the observers' narratives can be reconciled has only recently been made accessible to empirical investigation, through recent no-go theorems that construct an extended Wigner's friend scenario with four observers. In a state-of-the-art six-photon experiment, we realize this extended Wigner's friend scenario, experimentally violating the associated Bell-type inequality by five standard deviations. If one holds fast to the assumptions of locality and free choice, this result implies that quantum theory should be interpreted in an observer-dependent way.
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