Related papers: Consciousness and the Collapse of the Wave Functio…
Among several possibilities for what reality could be like in view of the empirical facts of quantum mechanics, one is provided by theories of spontaneous wave function collapse, the best known of which is the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber (GRW)…
The 'collapse' of the wave function in a general measuring process is analyzed by a pure quantum mechanical (QM) approach. The problem of the delayed choice and Welcher-Weg (WW) experiments is analyzed for Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometer.…
Few things in physics have caused so much hand-wringing as von Neumann's collapse hypothesis. Unable to derive it mathematically, von Neumann attributed it to interaction with the observer's brain! Few physicists agreed, but tweaks of von…
A long-standing quantum-mechanical puzzle is whether the collapse of the wave function is a real physical process or simply an epiphenomenon. This puzzle lies at the heart of the measurement problem. One way to choose between the…
The experiment of Etano et al which demonstrated the quantum Zeno effect (QZE) in an optical experiment was explained by Frerichs and Schenzle without invoking the wave function collapse. In this report it is proposed that the collapse does…
This article is a brief survey of some approaches to implementing the suggestion that collapse of the wave function is mediated by gravity. These approaches include: a possible connection between the problem of time and problem of quantum…
This paper proposes an experiment designed to distinguish between competing interpretations of quantum mechanics: those that involve wave function collapse and those that assume purely unitary evolution. The experiment tests whether an…
The influence of continuous measurements of energy with a finite accuracy is studied in various quantum systems through a restriction of the Feynman path-integrals around the measurement result. The method, which is equivalent to consider…
A variant of the von Neumann-Wigner Interpretation is proposed. It does not make use of the familiar language of wave functions and observers. Instead it pictures the state of the physical world as a vector in a Fock space and, therefore…
Mainstream literature on spontaneous wave function collapse never reflects on or profit from the formal coincidence and conceptual relationship with standard collapse under time-continuous quantum measurement (monitoring). I propose some…
The problem of measurement in quantum mechanics is that the quantum particle in the course of evolution, as described by the linear Schrodinger equation, exists in all of its possible states, but in measuring, the particle is always…
Models of spontaneous wave function collapse have been postulated to address the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. Their primary function is to convert coherent quantum superpositions into incoherent ones, with the result that…
In a previous paper, the author proposed a quantum mechanical interaction that would insure that the evolution of subjective states would parallel the evolution of biological states, as required by von Neumann's theory of measurement. The…
Consider a quantum system prepared in state $\psi$, a unit vector in a $d$-dimensional Hilbert space. Let $b_1,...,b_d$ be an orthonormal basis and suppose that, with some probability $0<p<1$, $\psi$ ``collapses,'' i.e., gets replaced by…
The basic strategy underlying models of spontaneous wave function collapse (collapse models) is to modify the Schroedinger equation by including nonlinear stochastic terms, which tend to localize wave functions in space in a dynamical…
The possibility of consistency between the basic quantum principles of quantum mechanics and wave function collapse is reexamined. A specific interpretation of environment is proposed for this aim and applied to decoherence. When the…
Measurements cause quantum wave functions to collapse. In tackling this elusive issue, we embark on the exploration of entropy exhibited by single-qubit quantum systems. Our findings surprisingly challenge the conventional law of entropy…
Could there be quantum superpositions of conscious states, as suggested by the Wigner's friend thought experiment? Mathematical theories of consciousness, notably Integrated Information Theory (IIT), make this question more precise by…
Two thought experiments are analyzed, revealing that the quantum state of the universe does not contain definitive evidence of the wavefunction collapse. The first thought experiment shows that unitary quantum evolution alone can account…
This talk was in response to the conference injunction to present "one bold but half-baked idea that you have been thinking about recently.. .". After a brief introduction to the ideas and formalism of the CSL theory of dynamical wave…