English

Causal Intuition and Delayed-Choice Experiments

Quantum Physics 2021-01-01 v2

Abstract

The conventional explanation of delayed-choice experiments appears to violate our causal intuition at the quantum level. I reanalyze these experiments using time-reversed and time-symmetric formulations of quantum mechanics. The time-reversed formulation does not give the same experimental predictions. The time-symmetric formulation gives the same experimental predictions but actually violates our causal intuition at the quantum level. I explore the reasons why our causal intuition may be wrong at the quantum level, suggest how conventional causation might be recovered in the classical limit, propose a quantum analog to the classical block universe viewpoint, and speculate on implications of the time-symmetric formulation for cosmological boundary conditions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1409.6297,
  title  = {Causal Intuition and Delayed-Choice Experiments},
  author = {Michael B. Heaney},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.6297},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

14 pages, 5 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T06:02:45.044Z