The Quantum Mechanics Needs the Principle of Wave-Function Collapse—But This Principle Shouldn’t Be Misunderstood
Open Access
- 1 January 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Scientific Research Publishing, Inc. in Journal of Quantum Information Science
- Vol. 11 (01), 42-63
- https://doi.org/10.4236/jqis.2021.111004
Abstract
The postulate of the collapse of the wave-function stands between the microscopic, quantum world, and the macroscopic world. Because of this intermediate position, the collapse process cannot be examined with the formalism of the quantum mechanics (QM), neither with that of classical mechanics. This fact makes some physicists propose interpretations of QM, which avoid this postulate. However, the common procedure used in that is making assumptions incompatible with the QM formalism. The present work discusses the most popular interpretations. It is shown that because of such assumptions those interpretations fail, i.e. predict for some experiments results which differ from the QM predictions. Despite that, special attention is called to a proposal of S. Gao, the only one which addresses and tries to solve an obvious and major contradiction. A couple of theorems are proved for showing that the collapse postulate is necessary in the QM. Although non-explainable with the quantum formalism, this postulate cannot be denied, otherwise one comes to conclusions which disagree with the QM. It is also proved here that the idea of “collapse at a distance” is problematic especially in relativistic cases, and is a misunderstanding. Namely, in an entanglement of two quantum systems, assuming that the measurement of one of the systems (accompanied by collapse of that system on one of its states) collapses the other systems, too without the second system being measured, which leads to a contradiction.Keywords
This publication has 32 references indexed in Scilit:
- Dynamical state reduction in an EPR experimentJournal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 2009
- Delayed-choice experiments and the Bohm approachPhysica Scripta, 2006
- Comment on “Consistent Sets Yield Contrary Inferences in Quantum Theory”Physical Review Letters, 1998
- Kent Replies:Physical Review Letters, 1998
- Consistent Sets Yield Contrary Inferences in Quantum TheoryPhysical Review Letters, 1997
- Comment on ‘‘Quantum mechanics, local realistic theories, and Lorentz-invariant realistic theories’’Physical Review Letters, 1994
- Quantum mechanics, local realistic theories, and Lorentz-invariant realistic theoriesPhysical Review Letters, 1992
- The transactional interpretation of quantum mechanicsReviews of Modern Physics, 1986
- Unperformed experiments have no resultsAmerican Journal of Physics, 1978
- Über die Zustandsänderung durch den MeßprozeßAnnalen der Physik, 1950