3 ms·

> Why do they not interact in any way? I'm not sure if this theory is used by many-worlders, but eigenstates of the Hamiltonian don't interact with each other

by wyager 10y ago

> Why do they not interact in any way? I'm not sure if this theory is used by many-worlders, but eigenstates of the Hamiltonian don't interact with each other at all. It could be that a similar selection rule explains why many-worlds eigenstates don't seem to interact. > What causes this creation of matter and energy? You don't need to create energy to put a quantum system in a superposition of more states. You divide the energy of each state by its amplitude squared to get the total energy, and the amplitudes squared sum to one. So in Many Worlds, as with regular QM, the amplitudes of each state get smaller as you add more states. Total energy doesn't need to change.

bmh100 10y ago
I appreciate your points about the mathematical side, but what about the physical side? What is the embodiment of the energy that is being infinitely divided? We know of matter, dark matter, and dark energy. Is there a fourth form of energy? What is the physical explanation as to why they don't interact? I.e. does gravity not travel along that space-time dimension? Is there a second time dimension? Are the universes created infinitely far apart?
- wyager 10y ago
  > but what about the physical side? That is the physical side. Your physical intuition may be getting in the way. > What is the embodiment of the energy that is being infinitely divided? What is the embodiment of the energy eigenstates of a quantum harmonic oscillator in a superposition? I'm not sure what kind of answer you want, but it's the same as the answer to that. > What is the physical explanation as to why they don't interact? Because they're (in my hypothetical scenario) eigenstates of the Hamiltonian. To get an intuition as to why they don't interact (again, in my scenario that might not correspond to leading many-worlds theories), look at the simplest possible case; one dimensional quantum harmonic oscillators. There's no short answer to your question. > I.e. does gravity not travel along that space-time dimension? Is there a second time dimension? Are the universes created infinitely far apart? Unfortunately, none of these questions are in the right ballpark. They are too complicated. If a selection rule in the universal Hamiltonian (or something) is the answer, they just won't interact at all. Bringing notions of other dimensions, or great distances, or whatever into it is unnecessary. Unfortunately, I don't think any suggestion I can give here will alleviate your confusion without having a background in QM. You may want to read Griffiths QM textbook if you're really interested.

by wyager 10y ago

bmh100 10y ago

I appreciate your points about the mathematical side, but what about the physical side? What is the embodiment of the energy that is being infinitely divided? We know of matter, dark matter, and dark energy. Is there a fourth form of energy? What is the physical explanation as to why they don't interact? I.e. does gravity not travel along that space-time dimension? Is there a second time dimension? Are the universes created infinitely far apart?

wyager 10y ago
> but what about the physical side? That is the physical side. Your physical intuition may be getting in the way. > What is the embodiment of the energy that is being infinitely divided? What is the embodiment of the energy eigenstates of a quantum harmonic oscillator in a superposition? I'm not sure what kind of answer you want, but it's the same as the answer to that. > What is the physical explanation as to why they don't interact? Because they're (in my hypothetical scenario) eigenstates of the Hamiltonian. To get an intuition as to why they don't interact (again, in my scenario that might not correspond to leading many-worlds theories), look at the simplest possible case; one dimensional quantum harmonic oscillators. There's no short answer to your question. > I.e. does gravity not travel along that space-time dimension? Is there a second time dimension? Are the universes created infinitely far apart? Unfortunately, none of these questions are in the right ballpark. They are too complicated. If a selection rule in the universal Hamiltonian (or something) is the answer, they just won't interact at all. Bringing notions of other dimensions, or great distances, or whatever into it is unnecessary. Unfortunately, I don't think any suggestion I can give here will alleviate your confusion without having a background in QM. You may want to read Griffiths QM textbook if you're really interested.