Related papers: The wave function discord
The Hartle-Hawking and Tunneling (Vilenkin) wave functions are treated in the Hamiltonian formalism. We find that the leading (i.e. quadratic) terms in the fluctuations around a maximally symmetric background, are indeed Gaussian (rather…
It has been widely thought that the wave function describes a real, physical field in a realist interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this paper, I present a new analysis of the field ontology for the wave function. First, I argue that…
In quantum cosmological models, constructed in the framework of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metrics, a nucleation of the Universe with its further expansion is described as a tunneling transition through an effective barrier between regions…
Quantum tunneling between two potential wells in a magnetic field can be strongly increased when the potential barrier varies in the direction perpendicular to the line connecting the two wells and remains constant along this line. An…
A theory for the tunneling of one atom out of a trap containing two interacting cold atoms is developed. The quasiparticle wave function, dressed by the interaction with the companion atom in the trap, replaces the non-interacting orbital…
We consider a wave-function approach to the false vacuum decay with gravity and present a new method to calculate the tunneling amplitude under the WKB approximation. The result agrees with the one obtained by the Euclidean path-integral…
The most puzzling issue in the foundations of quantum mechanics is perhaps that of the status of the wave function of a system in a quantum universe. Is the wave function objective or subjective? Does it represent the physical state of the…
Since Parikh and Wilczek's tunneling method was proposed, there have been many generalizations, such as its application to massive charged particles' tunneling and other spacetimes. Moreover, a variant tunneling method was also recently…
Prompted by the longstanding interpretational controversy in quantum mechanics, quantum tunneling is heuristically addressed within the Everettian quantum multiverse. In this framework, the universal wavefunction splits into decohered…
The meaning of the wave function of the Universe was actively discussed in 1980s. In most works on quantum cosmology it is accepted that the wave function is a probability amplitude for the Universe to have some space geometry, or to be…
We identify a fundamental obstruction to any theory of the beginning of the universe, formulated as a semiclassical path integral. Hartle and Hawking's no boundary proposal and Vilenkin's tunneling proposal are examples of such theories.…
The transformation cycle and associated inequality are suggested for the basic demonstration of the wavefunction reduction in a mesoscopic qubit in measurements with quantum-limited detectors. Violation of the inequality would show directly…
We consider the Hartle-Hawking wavefunction of the universe defined as a Euclidean path integral that satisfies the "no-boundary proposal." We focus on the simplest minisuperspace model that comprises a single scale factor degree of freedom…
Multi-time wave functions are wave functions for multi-particle quantum systems that involve several time variables (one per particle). In this paper we contrast them with solutions of wave equations on a space-time with multiple timelike…
We consider in detail the quantum-mechanical problem associated with the motion of a one-dimensional particle under the action of the double-well potential. Our main tool will be the euclidean (imaginary time) version of the path-integral…
Experiments with evanescent modes and tunneling particles have shown that i) their signal velocity may be faster than light, ii) they are described by virtual particles, iii) they are nonlocal and act at a distance, iv) experimental…
We study tunneling in one-dimensional quantum mechanics using the path integral in real time, where solutions of the classical equation of motion live in the complex plane. Analyzing solutions with small (complex) energy, relevant for…
Wormholes -- solutions to the euclidean Einstein equations with non-trivial topology -- are usually assumed to make real contributions to amplitudes in quantum gravity. However, we find a negative mode among fluctuations about the…
Quantum tunneling in a many-body system is much more non-trivial than that in a one-body system. The most characteristic phenomenon is the mixed tunneling, which has been studied in many fields for decades. For instance, let us consider a…
In Hawking's Euclidean path integral approach to quantum gravity, the partition function is computed by summing contributions from all possible topologies. The behavior such a sum can be estimated in three spacetime dimensions in the limit…