This is one of a series of articles building a map of elementary waves, based on experimental data and quantum mathematics. Previous articles showed that elementary waves carry no energy. Particles follow them backwards. Why? Elementary rays consist of probability amplitudes, which influence particles because that is what probability amplitudes do. Elementary waves are that part of nature corresponding to quantum mathematics. Since these waves are the physical analogs of quantum equations, those equations provide a roadmap to the world of elementary waves: a map written in hieroglyphs. Quantum math is our Rosetta stone. The quantum world is far, far more similar to the world of everyday experience than quantum experts think. Waves are in a superposition. Particles are not. Wave function collapse does not occur when we measure something. It had occurred much earlier, when the object came into existence. This resolves insoluble problems that stumped John von Neumann. The smooth functioning of a Schrödinger equation abruptly collapses into one specific eigenstate when a gun is fired, not when the bullet hits the target. The bullet that caused World War I is an example. That bullet caused an abrupt collapse of the smooth probabilities of commerce and diplomacy.
This is one of a series of articles building a map of elementary waves, based on experimental data and quantum mathematics. Previous articles showed that elementary waves carry no energy. Particles follow them backwards. Why? Elementary rays consist of probability amplitudes, which influence particles because that is what probability amplitudes do. Elementary waves are that part of nature corresponding to quantum mathematics. Since these waves are the physical analogs of quantum equations, those equations provide a roadmap to the world of elementary waves: a map written in hieroglyphs. Quantum math is our Rosetta stone. The quantum world is far, far more similar to the world of everyday experience than quantum experts think. Waves are in a superposition. Particles are not. Wave function collapse does not occur when we measure something. It had occurred much earlier, when the object came into existence. This resolves insoluble problems that stumped John von Neumann. The smooth functioning of a Schrödinger equation abruptly collapses into one specific eigenstate when a gun is fired, not when the bullet hits the target. The bullet that caused World War I is an example. That bullet caused an abrupt collapse of the smooth probabilities of commerce and diplomacy.
The quantum world is allegedly strange. But is it? What if there’s a simple mathematical explanation, and a simple solution? The success of quantum mechanics (QM) arises from the accuracy of its probability predictions, which are obtained by squaring amplitudes (the Born rule). Suppose for a moment that nature uses the negative of QM’s equations. When squared they would yield the same probabilities, confirmed by the same experiments and technological triumphs. If that were true, if nature uses the negative of QM’s equations, then the quantum world would become transparent, easy to understand. No more Schrödinger’s-cat. No quantum-eraser. No backwards-in-time cause-and-effect. No paradoxes nor enigmas. But, what’s a negative quantum equation? It could mean that particles follow zero-energy waves backwards, instead of forwards. That’s still an eccentric idea, a residual strangeness. Overall, it’s a bargain. We could swap one odd idea for another, because wave-particle duality is odd. We are accustomed to wave-particle duality. But we’ll show that experiments support the other arrangement: quantum particles follow zero-energy waves backwards. How could that possibly be true? We present substantial experimental evidence, new mathematics, and six dozen colorful illustrations. This is the Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW).
John von Neumann states a paradox. Why does measuring something disrupt the smooth Schrödinger wave, causing it to collapse for no mathematical reason? This paradox is embedded in the double slit experiment. When a dot appears on the target screen, how does that cause the Schrödinger wave to collapse everywhere else, faster than the speed of light? Von Neumann didn’t follow his mathematics to its logical conclusion. If wave function collapse irreversably changes reality, then the math is telling us that the timing and location of that event cannot be at the target screen. An event fitting that description happens only once: at the gun. A gunshot CAN change history. We propose a new mathematics of Schrödinger waves. Zero energy waves from the target screen pass backwards through the double slits and impinge on the gun prior to the gun firing. A particle randomly chooses one to follow backwards. The particle’s choice of wave is proportional to the amplitude squared of that wave at the gun, determined by the superposition of the two waves moving backwards through the two slits. Why follow a wave of zero energy? Because Schrödinger waves convey amplitudes determining the probability density of that path.
John von Neumann states a paradox. Why does measuring something disrupt the smooth Schrodinger wave, causing it to collapse for no mathematical reason? This paradox is embedded in the double slit experiment. When a dot appears on the target screen, how does that cause the Schrodinger wave to collapse everywhere else, faster than the speed of light? Von Neumann didn’t follow his mathematics to its logical conclusion. If wave function collapse irreversably changes reality, then the math is telling us that the timing and location of that event cannot be at the target screen. An event fitting that description happens only once: at the gun. A gunshot CAN change history. We propose a new mathematics of Schrodinger waves. Zero energy waves from the target screen pass backwards through the double slits and impinge on the gun prior to the gun firing. A particle randomly chooses one to follow backwards. The particle’s choice of wave is proportional to the amplitude squared of that wave at the gun, determined by the superposition of the two waves moving backwards through the two slits. Why follow a wave of zero energy? Because Schrodinger waves convey amplitudes determining the probability density of that path.
Abstract The concept of the collapse of the wave function was introduced into quantum theory by John von Neumann in the early 1930s and has since become an integral part of the theory’s orthodox interpretation. But if we were to ask ourselves what evidence we have that this collapse is a real physical phenomenon, we would have to admit that we have none. The notion of a collapse is necessary to explain how a quantum system initially present in a linear superposition state before the process of measurement is converted into a quantum system present in one, and only one, of the measurement eigenstates after the process has occurred. It was introduced into the theory because it is our experience that pointers point in only one direction at a time.
All “interpretations” of Quantum Mechanics (QM) are predicated on the assumption that quantum mathematics is correct. We disagree. The Born rule implies that nature may have a hidden symmetry: |+ψ|2 = |–ψ|2 = probability. If nature uses –ψ then physicists would not recognize that their math is 100% wrong. This hypothesis could explain the mystery that quantum math appears to be the most accurate and productive mathematics humans ever possessed, the source of our high-tech economy, yet scientists cannot agree on what the quantum world is like: does it exist, are there infinitely many worlds, etc. If we change our wave-function from +ψ to –ψ, that will mean that quantum particles follow zero-energy “Elementary Waves” backwards. This symmetry does not conform to Noether’s Theorem because it does not involve physical space, rather an error in the human imagination. Wave-function collapse no longer occurs when a quantum particle is observed. It occurs when a free particle is emitted: when the particle selects which in-coming Elementary Wave to follow backwards. This undermines the foundations of the many-worlds theory. A superposition of states collapses as a particle is emitted, becoming only one state, located in only one world, not many. Type (Method/Approach): No one previously recognized the Born rule could hide a “Born Symmetry”: |+ψ|2 ≡ |–ψ|2. If so, it would be so immense, pervasive, insidious, and invisible that it could explain all quantum “weirdness” even though quantum math is the most accurate and productive science ever.
Why is quantum mathematics (QM) the only science based on probability amplitudes rather than probabilities? A paradigm shift called the Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW) posits zero energy waves traveling in the opposite direction as particles, which a particle follows backwards: like a probabilistic guidance system emanating from detectors. Probability amplitudes are the mathematical analog of these elementary rays. Although this proposal might sound like gibberish, that is the hallmark of a paradigm shift. Thomas Kuhn warns that previous paradigm shifts were rejected because they sounded like gibberish. TEW is internally coherent, explains a mountain of empirical data, and resolves insoluble problems of QM. For example, it dispenses with the need for wavefunction collapse because probability decisions are made at the particle source, not the detector. It is the only local realistic theory consistent with the Bell test experiments. That which QM calls “nonlocality,” TEW calls “elementary rays.” One term is vague, the other involves elegant mathematics. This article introduces that mathematical notation, explains complementarity in double slit experiments, and reinterprets Feynman diagrams. QM and TEW are partners that need each other. One is a science of observables; the other a science of how nature works independent of the observer.