ترغب بنشر مسار تعليمي؟ اضغط هنا

Does a measurement really collapse the wave function?

172   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 نشر من قبل Sofia D. Wechsler
 تاريخ النشر 2010
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English
 تأليف Sofia Wechsler




اسأل ChatGPT حول البحث

A single-particle multi-branched wave-function is studied. Usual which-path tests show that if the detector placed on one branch clicks, the detectors on the other branches remain silent. By the collapse postulate, after this click, the state of the particle is reduced to a single branch, the branch on which the detector clicked. The present article challenges the collapse postulate, claiming that when one branch of the wave-function produces a click in a detector, the other branches dont disappear. They cant produce clicks in detectors, but they are still there. An experiment different from which-path test is proposed, which shows that detectors are responsible for strongly decohering the wave-function, but not for making parts of it disappear. Moreover, one of the branches supposed to disappear may produce an interference pattern with a wave-packet of another particle.



قيم البحث

اقرأ أيضاً

48 - Edward J. Gillis 2021
The assumption that wave function collapse is induced by the interactions that generate decoherence leads to a stochastic collapse equation that does not require the introduction of any new physical constants and that is consistent with conservation laws. The collapse operator is based on the interaction energy, with a variable timing parameter related to the rate at which individual interactions generate the branching process. The approximate localization of physical systems follows from the distance-dependent nature of the interactions. The equation is consistent with strict conservation of momentum and orbital angular momentum, and it is also consistent with energy conservation within the accuracy allowed by the limited forms of energy that can be described within nonrelativistic theory. A relativistic extension of the proposal is outlined.
Here we study the structure of a highly ionizing shock wave in a gas of high atmospheric pressure. We take into account the gas ionization when the gas temperature reaches few orders of an ionization potential. It is shown that after gasdynamic tempe rature-raising shock and formation of a highly-ionized nonisothermal plasma $T_e>>T_i$ only the solitary ion-sound wave (soliton) can propagate in this plasma. In such a wave the charge separation occurs: electrons and ions form the double electric layer with the electric field. The shock wave form, its amplitude and front width are obtained.
The Transactional Interpretation of quantum mechanics exploits the intrinsic time-symmetry of wave mechanics to interpret the $psi$ and $psi$* wave functions present in all wave mechanics calculations as representing retarded and advanced waves movin g in opposite time directions that form a quantum handshake or transaction. This handshake is a 4D standing-wave that builds up across space-time to transfer the conserved quantities of energy, momentum, and angular momentum in an interaction. Here we derive a two-atom quantum formalism describing a transaction. We show that the bi-directional electromagnetic coupling between atoms can be factored into a matched pair of vector potential Greens functions: one retarded and one advanced, and that this combination uniquely enforces the conservation of energy in a transaction. Thus factored, the single-electron wave functions of electromagnetically-coupled atoms can be analyzed using Schrodingers original wave mechanics. The technique generalizes to any number of electromagnetically coupled single-electron states---no higher-dimensional space is needed. Using this technique, we show a worked example of the transfer of energy from a hydrogen atom in an excited state to a nearby hydrogen atom in its ground state. It is seen that the initial exchange creates a dynamically unstable situation that avalanches to the completed transaction, demonstrating that wave function collapse, considered mysterious in the literature, can be implemented with solutions of Schrodingers original wave mechanics, coupled by this unique combination of retarded/advanced vector potentials, without the introduction of any additional mechanism or formalism. We also analyse a simplified version of the photon-splitting and Freedman-Clauser three-electron experiments and show that their results can be predicted by this formalism.
We consider a single copy of a quantum particle moving in a potential and show that it is possible to monitor its complete wave function by only continuously measuring its position. While we assume that the potential is known, no information is avail able about its state initially. In order to monitor the wave function, an estimate of the wave function is propagated due to the influence of the potential and continuously updated according to the results of the position measurement. We demonstrate by numerical simulations that the estimation reaches arbitrary values of accuracy below 100 percent within a finite time period for the potentials we study. In this way our method grants, a certain time after the beginning of the measurement, an accurate real-time record of the state evolution including the influence of the continuous measurement. Moreover, it is robust against sudden perturbations of the system as for example random momentum kicks from environmental particles, provided they occur not too frequently.
Quantum mechanics is an extremely successful theory that agrees with every experiment. However, the principle of linear superposition, a central tenet of the theory, apparently contradicts a commonplace observation: macroscopic objects are never foun d in a linear superposition of position states. Moreover, the theory does not really explain as to why during a quantum measurement, deterministic evolution is replaced by probabilistic evolution, whose random outcomes obey the Born probability rule. In this article we review an experimentally falsifiable phenomenological proposal, known as Continuous Spontaneous Collapse: a stochastic non-linear modification of the Schr{o}dinger equation, which resolves these problems, while giving the same experimental results as quantum theory in the microscopic regime. Two underlying theories for this phenomenology are reviewed: Trace Dynamics, and gravity induced collapse. As one approaches the macroscopic scale, the predictions of this proposal begin to differ appreciably from those of quantum theory, and are being confronted by ongoing laboratory experiments that include molecular interferometry and optomechanics. These experiments, which essentially test the validity of linear superposition for large systems, are reviewed here, and their technical challenges, current results, and future prospects summarized. We conclude that it is likely that over the next two decades or so, these experiments can verify or rule out the proposed stochastic modification of quantum theory.
التعليقات
جاري جلب التعليقات جاري جلب التعليقات
سجل دخول لتتمكن من متابعة معايير البحث التي قمت باختيارها
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا