- #1
The Head
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OK, so I'm trying to work out a few ideas regarding locality. I've studied at the undergrad level in the past (including quantum), but with professors that slaved away at proving math constructs and never bothered to indulge in clarifying the context of any concepts, so I'm pretty weak here.
From how I understand the Copenhagen Interpretation, the wave-function does not exist physically in space-time before a measurement (it rejects realism), otherwise the principle of locality would be violated when the wave-function collapses due to measurement. And I take this to mean that this is why locality isn't violated when we consider entangled particles.
If that's all reasonably correct, my question is, if the wave-function isn't something physically real and is just a mathematical tool to help us figure out probabilities, then what is the measurement device actually interacting with? We have physical things that cause collapse of a non-physical entity into a physical, localized particle (e.g., a photon).
For example, in the case where a photon could go traverse one of two distinct paths, it goes through both in a way in the form of a wave/probability distribution. Is energy actually moving through both paths, and this is what interacts with the detector? Or perhaps it's something else that causes collapse.
Appreciate any help. Trying to make this as concrete as possible.
From how I understand the Copenhagen Interpretation, the wave-function does not exist physically in space-time before a measurement (it rejects realism), otherwise the principle of locality would be violated when the wave-function collapses due to measurement. And I take this to mean that this is why locality isn't violated when we consider entangled particles.
If that's all reasonably correct, my question is, if the wave-function isn't something physically real and is just a mathematical tool to help us figure out probabilities, then what is the measurement device actually interacting with? We have physical things that cause collapse of a non-physical entity into a physical, localized particle (e.g., a photon).
For example, in the case where a photon could go traverse one of two distinct paths, it goes through both in a way in the form of a wave/probability distribution. Is energy actually moving through both paths, and this is what interacts with the detector? Or perhaps it's something else that causes collapse.
Appreciate any help. Trying to make this as concrete as possible.