Comparative Properties and Possible Experimental Tests
One of the salient properties of the many-worlds interpretation is that it does not require an exceptional method of wave function collapse to explain it. “It seems that there is no experiment distinguishing the MWI from other no-collapse theories such as Bohmian mechanics or other variants of MWI... In most no-collapse interpretations, the evolution of the quantum state of the Universe is the same. Still, one might imagine that there is an experiment distinguishing the MWI from another no-collapse interepretation based on the difference in the correspondence between the formalism and the experience (the results of experiments).”
However, in 1985 David Deutsch published three related thought experiments which could test the theory vs the Copenhagen interpretation. The experiments require macroscopic quantum state preparation and quantum erasure by a hypothetical quantum computer which is currently outside experimental possibility. Since then Lockwood (1989), Vaidman and others have made similar proposals. These proposals also require an advanced technology which is able to place a macroscopic object in a coherent superposition, another task for which it is uncertain whether it will ever be possible. Many other controversial ideas have been put forward though, such as a recent claim that cosmological observations could test the theory, and another claim by Rainer Plaga (1997), published in Foundations of Physics, that communication might be possible between worlds. As of 2010, there are no feasible experiments to test the differences between MWI and other theories.
Read more about this topic: Many-worlds Interpretation
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