Time-Symmetric Resolutions of the Renninger Negative-Result Paradoxes
Quantum Physics
2023-09-11 v1
Abstract
The 1953 and 1960 Renninger negative-result thought experiments illustrate conceptual paradoxes in the Copenhagen formulation of quantum mechanics. In the 1953 paradox we can infer the presence of a detector in one arm of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer without any particle interacting with the detector. In the 1960 paradox we can infer the collapse of a wavefunction without any change in the state of a detector. I resolve both of these paradoxes by using a time-symmetric formulation of quantum mechanics. I also describe a real experiment that can distinguish between the Copenhagen and time-symmetric formulations.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2309.04018,
title = {Time-Symmetric Resolutions of the Renninger Negative-Result Paradoxes},
author = {Michael B. Heaney},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.04018},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
14 pages, 4 figures