Related papers: Experiments in Principle for the Artscience (AS) I…
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…
A reasonable explanation of the confounding wave-particle duality of matter is presented in terms of the reality of the wave nature of a particle. In this view a quantum particle is an objectively real wave packet consisting of irregular…
In quantum mechanics, the wavefunction predicts probabilities of possible measurement outcomes, but not which individual outcome is realised in each run of an experiment. This suggests that it describes an ensemble of states with different…
Symmetry plays a central role in many areas of modern physics. Here we show that it also underpins the dual particle and wave nature of quantum systems. We begin by noting that a classical point particle breaks translational symmetry…
We suggest scattering experiments which implement the concept of ``protective measurements'' allowing the measurement of the complete wave function even when only one quantum system (rather than an ensemble) is available. Such scattering…
An experiment is described that empirically distinguishes the previously proposed q-rules governing the collapse of a wave function, and contrasts it with the conventional idea of a collapse as well as the current leading theory of collapse…
We propose a modified dynamics of quantum mechanics, in which classical mechanics of a point mass derives intrinsically in a massive limit of a single-particle model. On the premise that a position basis plays a special role in wavefunction…
The conceptual problems in quantum mechanics -- related to the collapse of the wave function, the particle-wave duality, the meaning of measurement -- arise from the need to ascribe particle character to the wave function. As will be shown,…
Feynman contended that the double-slit experiment contained the `only mystery' in quantum mechanics. The mystery was that electrons traverse the interferometer as waves, but are detected as particles. This note was motivated by the question…
Reduction is shown to be a possible consequence of the basic principles of quantum mechanics, involving no branching of the quantum state of the universe. The key feature of a measurement is attributed to the creation of macroscopic germs…
To enhance the consistency between the quantum descriptions of waves and particles, we quantise mechanical point particles in this paper in the same physically-motivated way as we previously quantised light in quantum electrodynamics…
The idea that wave-function collapse is a physical process stems from a misunderstanding of probability and the role it plays in quantum mechanics.
Weak measurements of photon position can be used to obtain direct experimental evidence of the wavefunction of a photon between generation and ultimate detection. Significantly, these measurement results can also be understood as complex…
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.…
A new approach to wavefunction collapse is prepared by an analysis of semiclassical gravity. The fact that, in semiclassical gravity, superposed states must share a common classical spacetime geometry, even if they prefer (according to…
A textbook interpretation of quantum physics is that quantum objects can be described in a particle or a wave picture, depending on the operations and measurements performed. Beyond this widely held believe, we demonstrate in this…
Some basic concepts concerning systems of identical particles are discussed in the framework of a realist interpretation, where the wave function is the quantum object and |psi(r)|^2 d^3r is the probability that the wave function causes an…
The undoing of quantum measurements is discussed in the broader context of irreversibility in physics. We give explicit examples of how a wavefunction can be uncollapsed in two solid-state experimental set-ups. Wavefunction uncollapse shows…
A dynamical model for the collapse of the wave function in a quantum measurement process is proposed by considering the interaction of a quantum system (spin-1/2) with a macroscopic quantum apparatus interacting with an environment in a…
The act of measurement on a quantum state is supposed to "collapse" the state into one of several eigenstates of the operator corresponding to the observable being measured. This measurement process is sometimes described as outside…