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| Niels Bohr brainwashed a whole generation of theorists into thinking that the job (interpreting quantum theory) was done 50 years ago. (Murray Gell-Man Nobel Prize in Physics 1969) |
The stated objective of Standard Quantum Mechanics according to Bohr, is to make probabilistic predictions of outcomes of experiments with atomic systems expressed in terms of wave functions satisfying Schrödinger's equation as systems mathematical model, and compare with observations/measurements of actual outcomes. The idea is that a system prior to measurement is in a state of superposition of possible outcomes with different probabilities given by the corresponding wave function, and that in the measurement process one of the possible outcomes becomes real and then is expressed as a collapse of the wave function.
The mantra is that predictions always agree with observations even if predictions are probabilistic and repeated experiments give the same result as if the wave function can only collapse in one way to the same outcome. The validity of this mantra can be questioned in many ways, in particular because the wave function for a many-electron system is uncomputable and thus cannot offer any prediction at all, but then in particular of course, never any incorrect prediction. This is viewed as evidence that the Schrödinger equation is a complete model without need of any further precision through "hidden variables", in particular cannot be falsified.
If you feel that this sounds strange, your are not alone, since this has been a source of bitter quarrel between physicists for nearly 100 years without ever any reconciliation. Questions add up:
- Is the measurement device included in the system model?
- How does the measurement influence the outcome?
- Does "collapse of the wave function" have a physical meaning?
- Can a theoretical non-prediction be falsified?
- Is this a "collapse of QM"?
- Can it be true that nothing exists until it is measured?
- Does the Moon not exist when it has disappeared behind a cloud?
- For the young child closing eyes Mom does not exist anymore, but for a physicist?
- Typical measurements can concern atomic spectra and they are deterministic cut in stone.
Inlägg
Heh, I once asked a physics website what energy source was used to disassemble and reassemble all this invariant-mass matter between the time no one is looking at a region of space, and the time that someone does look; and what type of memory system was being used to record system state (since the state of the universe seems to remain coherent between looks, thus it must be being recorded before that invariant-mass matter is descontructed and shuttled away at FTL immediately after one looks away); and if we looked at a region of space, then looked away, then looked, then looked away, etc., etc. would we piss off this obviously-sentient universe which is obviously monitoring where everyone is looking, and reconstructing the universe in their line of sight instantaneously, then just as quickly deconstructing it when they look away?
SvaraRaderaI got blocked from that website. The conclusions of the Copenhagen Interpretation are metaphysical claptrap. LOL