The purpose of this paper is to analyze the usual formulation of time-dependant perturbation theory to describe transitions and to find the system to which they refer.
After a brief reference to the quantum Zeno effect, a quantum Zeno paradox is formulated. Our starting point is the usual version of Time Dependent Perturbation Theory. Although this theory is supposed to account for transitions between stationary states, we are led to conclude that such transitions cannot occur. Paraphrasing Zeno, they are nothing but illusions. Two solutions to the paradox are introduced. The first as a straightforward application of the postulates of Orthodox Quantum Mechanics; the other is derived from a Spontaneous Projection Approach to quantum mechanics previously formulated. Similarities and differences between both solutions are highlighted. A comparison between the two versions of quantum mechanics, supporting their corresponding solutions to the paradox, shines a new light on quantum weirdness. It is shown, in particular, that the solution obtained in the framework of Orthodox Quantum Mechanics is defective.
Quantum mechanics gives us information about the spectra of dynamical variables and transition rates including scattering cross sections. They can be exhibited as spectral information in analytically continued spaces and their duals. Quantum mechanics formulated in these generalized spaces is used to study scattering and time evolution. It is shown that the usual asymptotic condition is inadequate to deal with the scattering of composite or unstable particles. Scattering theory needs an amendment when the interacting system is not isospectral with the free Hamiltonian; the amendment is formulated. Perturbation theory in generalized spaces is developed and used to study the deletion and augmentation of the spectrum of the Hamiltonian. A complete set of algebraically independent constants for an interacting system is obtained. The question of the breaking of time symmetry is discussed.
If a particle which can decay spontaneously is subjected to collisions with other particles the transition probability may be changed. The calculation of such an effect by the usual time-dependent perturbation methods is complicated by the circumstance that energy can be conserved in some intermediate states, because of the possibility of elastic scattering. The perturbation calculation is here modified in such a way that the resulting expression for the whole transition probability does not contain any divergences or spurious effects. By suitable approximations the expression is separated into two parts, one of which gives the probability of elastic scattering followed by a spontaneous transition, and the other the true stimulated transition probability which causes a change in the lifetime.