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arXiv:1008.0464 · To appear in the proceedings of

Backward Causation in Complex Action Model --- Superdeterminism and Transactional Interpretations

HOLGER BECH NIELSEN, Masao Ninomiya C

Published Aug 3, 2010• 8 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

It is shown that the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics being referred back to Feynman-Wheeler's time reversal symmetric radiation theory has reminiscences to our complex action model. In this complex action model the initial conditions are in principle even calculable. Thus it philosophically points towards superdeterminism, but really the Bell theorem problem is solved in our model of complex action by removing the significance of signals running slower than by light velocity. Our model as earlier published predicts that LHC should have some failure before reaching to have produced as many Higgs-particles as would have been produced the SSC accelerator. In the present article, we point out that a cardgame involving whether to restrict LHC-running as we have proposed to test our model will under all circumstances be a success.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1008.0464

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It is shown that the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics being referred back to Feynman-Wheeler's time reversal symmetric radiation theory has reminiscences to our complex action model. In this complex action model the initial conditions are in principle even calculable. Thus it philosophically points towards superdeterminism, but really the Bell theorem problem is solved in our model of complex action by removing the significance of signals running slower than by light velocity. Our model as earlier published predicts that LHC should have some failure before reaching to have produced as many Higgs-particles as would have been produced the SSC accelerator. In the present article, we point out that a cardgame involving whether to restrict LHC-running as we have proposed to test our model will under all circumstances be a success.
We argue that a restriction determined by a drawn card or quantum random numbers, on the running of LHC (Large Hadron Collider), which was proposed in earlier articles by us, can only result in an, at first, apparent success whatever the outcome. This previous work was concerned with looking for backward causation and/or influence from the future, which, in our previous model, was assumed to have the effect of arranging bad luck for large Higgs producing machines, such as LHC and the never finished SSC (Superconducting Super Collider) stopped by Congress because of such bad luck, so as not to allow them to work.
We develop some formalism which is very general Feynman path integral in the case of the action which is allowed to be complex. The major point is that the effect of the imaginary part of the action (mainly) is to determine which solution to the equations of motion gets realized. We can therefore look at the model as a unification of the equations of motion and the ``initial conditions". We have already earlier argued for some features matching well with cosmology coming out of the model. A Hamiltonian formalism is put forward, but it still has to have an extra factor in the probability of a certain measurement result involving the time after the measurement time. A special effect to be discussed is a broadening of the width of the Higgs particle. We reach crudely a changed Breit-Wigner formula that is a normalized square root of the originally expected one
The interpretational problems of quantum mechanics are considered. The way in which the standard Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics deals with these problems is reviewed. A new interpretation of the formalism of quantum mechanics, the transactional interpretation, is presented. The basic element of this interpretation is the transaction describing a quantum event as an exchange of advanced and retarded waves, as implied by the work of Wheeler and Feynman, Dirac, and others. The transactional interpretation is explicitly nonlocal and thereby consistent with recent tests of the Bell inequality, yet is relativistically invariant and fully causal. A detailed comparison of the transactional and Copenhagen interpretations is made in the context of well-known quantum-mechanical Gedankenexperimente and "paradoxes." The transactional interpretation permits quantum-mechanical wave functions to be interpreted as real waves physically present in space rather than as "mathematical representations of knowledge" as in the Copenhagen interpretation. The transactional interpretation is shown to provide insight into the complex character of the quantum-mechanical state vector and the mechanism associated with its "collapse." It also leads in a natural way to justification of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the Born probability law ($P=\ensuremath{\psi}{\ensuremath{\psi}}^{*}$), basic elements of the Copenhagen interpretation.
Time-symmetric interpretations of quantum theory are often presented as featuring "retrocausal" effects in addition to the usual forward notion of causation. This paper examines the ontological implications of certain time- symmetric theories, and finds that no dynamical notion of causation applies to them, either forward or backward. It is concluded that such theories actually describe a static picture, in which the notion of causation is relegated to a descriptor of static relationships among events. In addition, these theories lead to an epistemic rather than ontologically referring, realist view of quantum states.
Since its inception, quantum mechanics has faced a series of “mysteries” that emerge from it if we consider this scientific theory from a realistic point of view. In the early development of the theory, scientists like Albert Einstein noticed the consequences of accepting a theory like this, which allow phenomena such as non-locality. This led a part of the scientific community to believe that quantum mechanics was an incomplete theory, since there should be variables that might explain those “disturbing” phenomena such as the correlation between entangled particles.Different interpretations of quantum mechanics have been proposed that have tried to reveal or explain the reality underlying its formalism. One of those interpretations is the “Transactional Interpretation” of quantum mechanics, advocated mainly by physicist John G. Cramer. According to this interpretation, quantum events are understood as causal interactions between delayed waves traveling forward in time and advanced waves traveling backward in time. This interpretation opens the door to accept a model of causation to the past or retrocausation.Authors like Phil Dowe or Huw Price have shown a favorable attitude toward the model of retrocausation because it seems to be capable of effectively solve some of the most disturbing features derived from quantum mechanics. Despite the intuitive cost is rather high, retrocausation is one of the possible interpretations for the results of the correlation between entangled particles to provide us with an explanatory framework with some interesting advantages.In this paper we explore such advantages, as the retrocausation gives us a generalizable explanatory model for all cases of this type and assumes processes and entities that are not only in the field of speculation but allow certain possibilities of testing. Also, we will rescue the importance of not-predictive explanatory models as has been the case in other fields of natural sciences, provided that those model do not be ad hoc due to restrictions that prevent its application to any case.
It is brought forward that viable theories of the physical world that have no variable at all that can play the role of time, do not exist; some notion of time is one of the very first ingredients a candidate theory should possess. Almost by definition, time has an arrow. In contrast, time reversibility, or even the possibility to run the equations of motion backwards in time, is not at all a primary requirement. This means that the direction of the arrow of time may well be uniquely defined in the theory, even locally. It is explained that a rigorous definition of time, as well as a formulation of the causality and locality concepts, can only be given when one has a model for the physical phenomena described. The only viable causality condition is one that is symmetric under time reversal. We explain these statements in terms of the author’s favoured deterministic cellular automaton interpretation of quantum mechanics, also to be referred to as 'vector space analysis', and expand on these ideas. It is also summarised how our more rigorous causality condition affects Bell’s theorems. What distinguishes quantum systems from classical ones is our fundamental inability to control the microscopic details of the initial state when phenomena are studied in the light of some theoretical model.