A French researcher has developed a mathematical model that forces the wave function to collapse due to gravitational interaction. The model is based on the proposal of the physicist Penrose who claimed that the wave function collapses when the curvature in space-time differs significantly between intertwined bodies
Quantum theory led a revolution in the world of science and technology. The theoretical achievements are confirmed every day in laboratories around the world up to a phenomenal accuracy of thirteen digits after the decimal point. Despite the success of this theory, its foundation is quite shaky. One of the problems with quantum theory is so fundamental that to an outside listener it will sound like a bad joke. What is measurement? And how is it described in quantum theory? To this day, physicists from around the world disagree and we don't have a real answer. The measurement problem produced different interpretations of quantum theory - multiple worlds, the Copenhagen interpretation, the Bohemian theory, and also Penrose's interpretation. Each interpretation presupposes a different list of assumptions but all simultaneously try to answer the measurement problem. Somehow, Copenhagen's interpretation prevailed, perhaps because it is also the simplest, one that does not require us to think deeply about what measurement is.
The Copenhagen interpretation assumes that the measurement, that action which forces the wave function to collapse, is affected by the operator of the measurement, the scientist for that matter. This interpretation felt so ridiculous to scientists at the time that Schrödinger himself invented a thought experiment to show how bizarre it is. We all know Schrödinger's cat - a cat in a box exposed to a radioactive atom that may disintegrate at any moment. If the atom does disintegrate, a mechanism will be activated that will kill the cat. As long as the scientist does not open the box, the physical state of the cat, intertwined with the physical state of the atom, is in the superposition of living and dead. Only when opening the box does the experimenter actually measure the physical state of the atom which forces the cat to adjust itself - alive if the atom has not disintegrated or dead if the atom has disintegrated. Of course, none of us have measured a superposition cat or seen such a quantum state on macroscopic bodies. Therefore, the question arises, what prevents such a situation from occurring? Is there a mechanism that prevents the microscopic world from affecting the microscopic world so dramatically?
In the late nineties, Penrose proposed a solution to the paradox with the help of gravity. During the measurement, the bodies are interwoven, meaning that the physical state of each depends on the other. If the gravitational energy between the two bodies is different enough, the wave function will collapse. Penrose derived the idea from the tendency of gravity to concentrate bodies scattered in space. In his thought, he expressed the hope that maybe gravity also plays a significant role in the concentration of the wave function, thus disproving the claim that the measurement somehow depends on the scientist. With the help of the model he proposed, the measurement is done naturally without human influence. Until now, researchers have not been able to realize Penrose's idea.
A few days ago, the French researcher Lelau published the following model in the European Physics Magazine: he proposed to base it on the Bohemian concept (which actually assumes that the position of particles is well defined and not spread in a superposition over the entire space) and on top of that add a simulated gravitational force. The simulated force is not "simulated" literally, but the same gravitational force we know is multiplied by the simulated number (root of minus one). The simulated number leads to an irreversible state that the wave function evolving in time thanks to the Schrödinger equation will collapse into a single physical state. Since the gravitational force is weak, the effect of the simulated force is very weak for any individual atom. But if an atom is affected by a significant gravitational force it will force the collapse of the wave function during a measured time. So too with Schrödinger's cat. The radioactive atom is intertwined with its surroundings so that gravity will affect it to collapse into one of the states regardless of opening the box.
This is the first time that the Penrose hypothesis receives a formal mathematical description, but it is still far from describing reality. First, the gravitational force that Lau describes is Newtonian gravity and not Einsteinian. Of course, at high energies the simple description of quantum theory loses its grip and quantum field theory is needed to accurately describe the physics at these limits.
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First: Thank you for giving a link to the original article. I hope this practice continues.
Second: it's quite depressing to read the readers' comments on a site that is more or less the only popular science site in Hebrew.
The physical existence of the smallest energy particle depends on the size range of space itself. That is: if we look at reality anywhere below the size of 10 to the power of minus 24 or "Planck" distance, there is simply no existence. No physics. As soon as you look larger than Planck, you suddenly see existence. Like being under water and then coming up. That's why no particle has an exact location that can be measured. It takes place in every small location - a kind of quantum vibration at the speed of light. Because there is not an infinitesimally small point on which he can sit. It's like tiny balls in a million layers of a sieve, constantly passing and vibrating from sieve to sieve. You keep going down a step smaller and smaller. and cannot sit in one place.
And that's why as soon as it is affected by some measurement then it becomes defined.
Amide
Sounds like a bunch of nonsense...
Wow
The solution is mass time.
For further explanation contact us.
A point to think about - if gravity is created from a network of electrons and positrons and the measurements are made with the help of electrons, what wonder is it that gravity affects the result... the physical world is very simple. Look for consolation from Epola, like all the geniuses who were ahead of their time, he understood the physical world before everyone else...
The "measurement problem" is not a real problem and therefore has no solution either. In fact, what is commonly called matter or mass is a very strong energy (according to the well-known Einstein formula) that our senses perceive as matter. Quantum mechanics is a step towards this understanding, and so are the endless attempts to find the smallest "particle". Each "particle" is in itself concentrated energy, therefore the attempt to measure its position is unsuccessful because the energy has no definite position. "Large bodies" can only be "measured" because the effect of the "measurement" on their "location" is negligible. The entire physical world known to us does exist, including our body, but is perceived by our senses as matter and is actually energy.
I'm going off the rails because of this Torah. Ugh. The more you explain, the less I understand. Gualdaddad
I did not understand
The matter of the collapse of the wave function itself is problematic. It's really not clear what happens when a wave function suddenly decides to disappear and a particle suddenly appears. Or how a wave function disappears and a foreign particle gets all its energy. For example an electromagnetic wave moves in space, has a huge volume (in theory infinite) and can be in different places at the same time. And suddenly this wave enters the telescope, reaches a detector a few microns in size and gives all its energy to a small, point-like electron (almost), which begins to move with the help of this energy inside the detector. How did the far parts of the wave function know that they should deliver energy to the electron?
And it is clear that there are also opposite processes that are not understood.
It is as if there is a process that happens in zero time and affects the whole space. And if the time is not zero, what happens inside the process???