4 ms·
> Nowhere in the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics will you find an equation describing this collapse. We are left to assume it happens. Nada. We a
by Nevermark 2y ago
> Nowhere in the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics will you find an equation describing this collapse. We are left to assume it happens.
Nada. We are not left having to assume anything but the very clear laws we already have, and continually confirm.
The field equations clearly explain why a collapse “appears” to happen. There is no need to invent an actual literal collapse to explain something already explained.
Let’s keep going with cats.
We know from the laws of momentum and of light-matter interactions that if you throw a cat behind a couch it will “disappear” from existence.
Now imagine people proposing new “disappearing” laws beyond the laws we know. Or saying we are just supposed to assume there is one.
The problem with both responses is (1) the cat didn’t really disappear from the universe, we just perceive it that way, and (2) the reasons for that perception are already explained.
Likewise, quantum collapse doesn’t really happen, it is perceived, and we know why:
The field equations don’t just apply to cats inside boxes, but also cats outside boxes!
When an outside cat opens a box to determine the state of the inside cat, both cats are part of a single field equation. The total field equation covers all potential points of contact between the contributing fields of each cat. These points of contact are called “events” but not classical events. These events all happen. This is why we could have a dead/alive cat in a box in the first place.
(The field equations predict all the events, with different relative distributions, in superposition. Numerous elaborate experiments, and practical systems like quantum computers, both confirm these equations, including their distributions of superpositions.)
Now if you are an outside cat, which one are you? Pick any version based on which “event” you want, and that cat will see that event, see an inside cat alive or dead, and conclude the cat is alive. Or the cat is dead. But the cat never collapsed into one or the other. Another version of outside cat is seeing the other type of event in the total field equation.
So: each outside cat perceives a “collapse” of a dead/alive inside cat into either an alive cat, or a dead cat, but (1) there wasn’t a collapse, just two ways to half the field, and (2) the perception of a “collapse” is exactly what the field equations predict. There isn’t anything unexplained.
Apparently when we are very young and learning about the world, “disappearing” cats behind couches seems strange, and either inexplicable, or “needing” a special “disappearing” law, due to our lack of experience with occlusion.
Today, many people find “collapsing” cats (or atom states) strange and either inexplicable, or “needing” a special “collapse” law, due to a lack of experience with field equations of superpositions, that include themselves.
Contrary to politicians and newborns who may assume perception as reality. It is only a starting point for actually understanding reality. Which seldom actually conforms to our perceptions.