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Validity of Conservation Laws in Quantum Processes

María Esther Burgos

Published Mar 3, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The validity of conservation laws is analyzed in spontaneous processes and in measurement processes. It is shown that conservation laws are strictly valid in processes ruled by the Schrödinger equation. By contrast, in processes ruled by the projection postulate they have only a statistical sense.
DOI
10.9734/bpi/nupsr/v2/1623c

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In this paper I present a thought experiment that gives different results depending on whether or not the wavefunction collapses. Since the wavefunction does not obey the Schrodinger equation during the collapse, conservation laws are violated. This is the reason why the results are different. Quantities that are conserved if the wavefunction does not collapse might change if it does. I also show that using the Born Rule to derive probabilities of states before a measurement given the state after it (rather than the other way round as it is usually used) leads to the conclusion that the memories that an observer has about making measurements of quantum systems have a significant probability of being false memories.
The interrelationship between energy and probability conservation is explored from the point of view of statistical physics and non-relativistic quantum mechanics. The simultaneous validity of the law of conservation of energy and the continuity equation (probability conservation) breaks for an interacting dynamical system. A separate and independent description of a physical system can be obtained by requiring that the law of conservation of probability is at the heart of the derivation of the ''equations of motion''. In effect, The Schrodinger equation can be viewed as an appropriate factorization of the continuity equation instead of an energy conservation relation per se.
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