Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics

by Nick Herbert

Like the one-hole diffraction experiment, the stellar interferometer demonstrates the coexistence of wave and particle effects. Nothing but particles are ever detected directly, but the pattern of these particles must have been caused by some some sort of wave—the form light seems to take when it is not being measured.

To understand quantum theory, as opposed to merely knowing how to use it, we must answer two questions: 1. What does the wave function really mean? (the interpretation question); 2. What happens during a quantum measurement? (the measurement problem).

A gravity wave slightly warps every object in its path, squeezing it in one direction and stretching it in the orthogonal direction.

Besides position and momentum, the sapphire bar possesses an infinity of external attributes—one for every waveform family in its proxy wave’s configuration space. Though each attribute and its corresponding conjugate attribute are mutually constrained by the uncertainty principle, not every attribute is of the demolition type.

Like all conjugate attributes, the realms of possibilities of X1 and X2 are jointly constrained by the uncertainty principle, but unlike position and momentum, the spread of possibilities of one of these attributes confines itself to that attribute and does not feed back into its conjugate attribute.

(QND measurement).

“squeezed states.”

1. Quantum theory applies in principle to all physical entities no matter how large; 2. A crucial step in any quantum measurement is choosing which attribute you will look at.

exceptional case of observation with a kin prism, we might say that the experimenter is seeing not what he put in but what is really there. However, although these electrons seem to possess momentum in a manner reminiscent of classical objects, none of their other attributes is single-valued. All the other attributes come about via the quantum meter option—observer-created reality of the first kind.

In spin space, where the waveforms dwell which represent a quon’s internal motion, the major attributes are the spin orientations Sx, Sy, Sz in three orthogonal directions. For light and many other quantum entities, the most important minor attribute in spin space is polarization.

THE POLARIZATION ATTRIBUTE OF A LIGHT BEAM

Polarization is an attribute connected with a particular direction in space. For each direction a single photon has only two options: either it is entirely polarized in that direction or it is entirely polarized at right angles to that direction. The only polarization directions that concern us here are the orthogonal—those at right angles to the light beam’s direction of travel.

1. If you record 100 percent hits, the beam is said to be completely polarized in the ϕ direction. 2. If you record 100 percent misses, the beam is completely polarized in the orthogonal direction. 3. If you record 50 percent hits/50 percent misses, the light beam is unpolarized in the ϕ direction.

This mathematical relationship between polarization waveforms means that if we put waveform D into a wave analysis prism whose outputs are H and V waveforms, the prism will divide the D wave into an H wave and a V wave with equal amplitudes.

calcite crystal

SIX VARIATIONS ON THE QUANTUM MEASUREMENT PROBLEM

Where do we put the “cut” which divides the quantum and classical world?

At what point in the measurement process do identical quantum entities develop differences?

At what point in the machinery does possibility change into actuality?

In the process of quantum measurement, when do two paths turn into one? And what happens to the path not taken?

How and when does quantum ignorance turn into classical ignorance?

how and when does the wave function “collapse”? We

Bell’s theorem tells us that no neorealist model will work unless it contains real but invisible faster-than-light force fields, a situation most physicists consider unacceptable.

THE COPENHAGEN PICTURE OF QUANTUM MEASUREMENT

Quantum theory is not a representation, much less a description, of quantum reality, but a representation of the relationship between our familiar reality and the quon’s utterly inhuman realm.

A curious feature of the Copenhagen interpretation is that it considers both the atom and the measuring device to be incomprehensible.

Quantum theory applies to the relationship which exists between these two conceptually opaque kinds of being.

Copenhagen interpretation does not so much solve the measurement problem as conceal it. It sweeps this problem under the rug, into the one place in the world inaccessible to human scrutiny—the insides of measuring devices.

THE VON NEUMANN PICTURE OF QUANTUM MEASUREMENT

The world obviously has only one nature, and that nature is not classical.

he symbolized both the system and the measuring device with proxy waves. Von

As Feynman showed in his sum-over-histories version of quantum theory, one way to think about what unmeasured quons are doing is to imagine that each quon takes all paths.

possibilities at least equal to Planck’s constant of action.

Von Neumann’s all-quantum description will not work unless such a collapse really occurs as a physical process in every quantum measurement.

How and where does the wave function collapse occur?

WHERE DOES THE WAVE FUNCTION ACTUA...

A solution to the measurement problem, according to Swiss chemist Hans Primas, would consist of “severing von Neumann’s chain at the first true measurement act.” In other words, where in fact is a quantum measurement actually accomplished?

Von Neumann showed that as far as final results are concerned, you can cut the chain and insert a collapse anywhere you please. This means that the results themselves can offer no clues as to where to locate the division between system and measuring device.

“And then a miracle occurs.”

Neumann seized on its only peculiar link: the process by which a physical signal in the brain becomes an experience in the human mind.

This direct intervention of consciousness in every measurement is what I call “observer-created reality of the second kind” to distinguish it from the mild kind of observer-created attributes entailed by the quantum meter option.

1. Bohr’s Copenhagen interpretation divides the world into quantum and classical realms—both incomprehensible—whose relationship is represented by a fictitious proxy wave; 2. Von Neumann’s all-quantum picture represents both quon and M device with proxy waves which are connected by the so-called wave function collapse; 3. David Bohm, Louis de Broglie and other neorealists describe the physicist’s world—consisting of systems and M devices—as being made solely of particles connected by (superluminal) waves.

The neorealist model of reality sanctifies neither measuring device nor measurement act; neorealist measurements are just ordinary interactions. However, the price for this neorealist solution to the QMP is the necessary existence of invisible superluminal force fields.

DO QUANTUM ENTITIES POSSESS FUZZY ATTRIBUTES?

practical purposes they act classically. Schrödinger’s proposal depends on the fact that Planck’s constant is so tiny that on the scale of ordinary objects it is effectively zero.

Schrödinger suggests that a single atom as well as an individual M device possesses not one momentum but a range of momenta—momenta that exist not merely in potentia but in actuality.

Planck’s constant is about 1 × 10-27 erg seconds.

Despite the fact that their fuzziness could never be directly observed, Schrödinger concluded that measuring devices cannot possess fuzzy attributes. He argued that even though M devices would have realms of possibility too small to measure, it’s easy to imagine experiments which split these tiny realms into two disjointed domains, each of which has very different macroscopic consequences.

our polarization experiment the realm of possibility of each D photon is exactly cleaved in two by the H/V crystal. This photon, after passing through the crystal, becomes a superposition of V and H photons which are spatially separated. According to the laws of quantum motion (expand to fill all possibilities) this state evolves into a state in which both the up and down counters are triggered at the same time by a single photon.

von Neumann proved more rigorously with his mathematics: if the whole world is described quantum-mechanically, in terms of proxy waves, then somewhere between the quon source and final result a “wave function collapse” must occur.