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The wave function isn't really this thing that physically exists but is really a data structure which exists only in your head that captures the information you
by gaze 9y ago
The wave function isn't really this thing that physically exists but is really a data structure which exists only in your head that captures the information you have about a quantum system. So yeah collapse is instantaneous, but that's just because you can update something in your head instantly because you learned something about something that happened far away.
- skygazer 9y agoI don't know that that's true. I'm by no means, even remotely, an expert. But it sounds like you've got a "hidden variables" take on it; that you're suggesting the probability wave is our statistical prediction of a systems state limited by our ignorance, which is what Einstein believed, and has been since contradicted by physical experiment showing violation of Bell's inequality? Am I mistaken? Feel free to correct me.
- gaze 9y agoAh that's not what I'm saying but it's subtle. Access to hidden variables, if they existed, would allow you to predict a measurement outcome. I'm not saying that. I'm saying the wave function is a tool that allows you to write down all the correlations. In other words, the wave function is a tool that allows you to reproduce all the probability distributions