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The Measurement Problem

Norman M. Witriol

Published Mar 1, 2021• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The Quantum Measurement Problem is solved if we define a new object, Partave, that replaces the quantum mechanical assignments of particle and wave to the physical objects (electrons, light, etc.) we wish to measure/describe. The properties of Partaves that are described (as being those given by Nature/Reality) as being the quantum mechanically properties actually measured for objects (like electrons, and photons), no problem exists for describing these objects once they are assigned as being a partave (instead of being assigned to being a particle or wave).

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The Quantum Measurement Problem is solved if we define a new object, Partave, that replaces the quantum mechanical assignments of particle and wave to the physical objects (electrons, light, etc.) we wish to measure/describe. The properties of Partaves that are described (as being those given by Nature/Reality) as being the quantum mechanically properties actually measured for objects (like electrons, and photons), no problem exists for describing these objects once they are assigned as being a partave (instead of being assigned to being a particle or wave).
A new formulation of quantum mechanics is developed which does not require the concept of the wave-particle duality. Rather than assigning probabilities to outcomes, probabilities are instead assigned to entire fine-grained histories. The formulation is fully relativistic and applicable to multi-particle systems. It shall be shown that this new formulation makes the same experimental predictions as quantum field theory, but without having to rely upon the notion of a system evolving in a superposition of quantum states until collapsed by an observation. It is thus free from the problem of deciding what exactly constitutes an observation (the measurement problem) and may therefore be applied just as readily to the macroscopic world as to the microscopic.
Recently a study of the first superposed mechanical quantum object ("machine") visible to the naked eye was published. However, as we show, it turns out that if the object would actually be observed, i.e. would interact with an optical photon, the quantum behavior should vanish. This, the actual observation, has long been suspected in many interpretations of quantum mechanics to be what makes the transition quantum →\rightarrow→ classical, but so far it has not been available for direct experimental study in a mechanical system. We show how any interaction, even a purely quantum one, of sufficient strength can constitute a physical "measurement" - essentially the emergence of an effectively classical object - active observation thus being a sufficient but not necessary criterion. So it seems we have in this case of the "quantum machine" a unique possibility to study, and possibly solve, the long-standing "measurement problem" of quantum mechanics.
Abstract The so-called quantum measurement problems are solved from a new perspective. One of the main observations is that the basic entities of our world are particles, elementary or composite. It follows that each elementary process, hence each measurement process at its core, is a spacetime, pointlike, event. Another key idea is that, when a microsystem ψ gets into contact with the experimental device, factorization of ψ rapidly fails and entangled mixed states appear. The wave functions for the microsystem-apparatus coupled system for different measurement outcomes then lack overlapping spacetime support. It means that the aftermath of each measurement is a single term in the sum: a “wave-function collapse”. Our discussion leading to a diagonal density matrix, ρ = diag(|c 1|2,…,|cn |2,…) shows how the information encoded in the wave function <?CDATA $|\psi \rangle =\displaystyle {\sum }_{n}{c}_{n}|n\rangle $?> | ψ 〉 = ∑ n c n | n 〉 gets transcribed, via entanglement with the experimental device and environment, into the relative frequencies Pn = |cn |2 for various experimental outcomes F = fn . Our discussion represents the first, significant steps towards filling in the logical gaps in the conventional interpretation based on Born’s rule, replacing it with a clearer understanding of quantum mechanics. Accepting objective reality of quantum fluctuations, independent of any experiments, and independently of human presence, one renounces the idea that in a fundamental, complete theory of Nature the result of each single experiment must necessarily be predictable.
Heisenberg argued that wave and particle are too exclusively different in properties, making the intrinsic wave-quantum unity of light impossible to visualize and describe by the language. He invented mathematical Quantum Theory to circumvent visualization and inadequacy of language. But mathematics too is a language to supplement description. He used it to superimpose hidden concepts leading to the Uncertainty Principle. In Unified Theory the wave & particle aspects of electromagnetic radiation and moving material particle coexist blended together as wave-quantum UNITY. This is also supported by experiments. The wave-or-quantum DUALITIES of Quantum Theory appear due to experimental limitations to observe only one and not both of the two aspects simultaneously. Conservation of mass & momentum are inviolable. Matter‘s creation from, or dissolution into, ‘nothing’ is unrealistic. So the Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is rejected as unrealistic and new Principle of Null Action with universal applications is introduced. The Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Theory is reappraised critically. This paper will bring out and rectify the unreality of Heisenberg-Bohr [1] approach and also explain from sharmon medium of the Unified Theory [2], the Wave-Quantum 'unity' appearing as Wave-or-Quantum 'duality', which the Quantum Theory was all about but could not explain satisfactorily. The Uncertainty Principle will be rejected as unrealistic and a new Principle of Null Action with universal applications introduced. The Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Theory will be critically reappraised. 1. The objective reality exists irrespective of the observer We observe an object through the signals, emanating or reflected from it, received by our senses and interpreted by the brain/mind. The human senses and intellect have their own limitations and the mediating signals themselves introduce some distortion or uncertainty of observation. It turns precise objective reality into imprecise subjective appearance. Heisenberg [1] made the subjective imprecision as the very nature of things and based his Quantum Theory on the observer's imprecise view of the intrinsically precise physical reality. But the physical objects, phenomena and events, which their theories purport to describe, do not actually need any observer for their existence and are, in fact, governed by NOT the observed but actual magnitudes of their physical parameters like energy, momentum, time, length etc. For instance, the moon or distant galaxies or invisible submicroscopic particles exist not only during the attention of the viewer but also without an observer. In order to formulate physical laws in terms of the observed or measured magnitudes, the Quantum Theory is erroneously based on “what can be known”, instead of on “what actually there is”, in the objective reality. That is on the observed, and not on the actual magnitudes, putting the observer's imprecise view super-most in derogation of the inherent precision in the observed objective reality. 2. Wave-or-Quantum duality of matter & radiation in Quantum Theory Heisenberg [1] noted with scientific curiosity and concern that the -rays emitted from radioactive elements showed definite tracks in Wilson photographs like fast moving particles.
The term "measurement" in quantum theory (as well as in other physical theories) is ambiguous: It is used to describe both an experience - e.g., an observation in an experiment - and an interaction with the system under scrutiny. If doing physics is regarded as a creative activity to develop a meaningful description of the world, then one has to carefully discriminate between the two notions: An observer's account of experience - consitutive to meaning - is hardly expressed exhaustively by the formal framework of an interaction within one particular theory. We develop a corresponding perspective onto central terms in quantum mechanics in general, and onto the measurement problem in particular.