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Heissenberg
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- TL;DR Summary
- Can the waveform collapse be a result of an entanglement cascade?
In my limited understanding of the quantum measurement problem, I am imagining the whole thing as corresponding to a kind of "weighting down" by a cascade of entaglement.
Here is my very simple understanding of the quantum measurement problem: A waveform (Schrödinger equation) describes the various amplitudes for e.g. a superimposed electron at various positions, this when measured, collapses into a certain position, that can be predicted probabilistic as the square of the amplitude, or something like this.
*The measurement device is something that can amplify the signal enough to be readable (importantly it is very large in comparison to the electron).
Here is how I think of it: The unentangled electron (for example sent through a slit), gets entangled with whatever is doing the measuring of its position, and in a kind of cascade, the electron gets entangled with all quantum states of the whole and relatively large measurement apparatus. Then this entanglement “weight down" the fluctuation of the superimposed probability amplitude of the electron waveform, and thus it apparently collapses to a certain position. This happens with a probability proportional to the amplitudes at different superimposed positions (naturally as it is more likely to be there at the moment of the measurement). If/when the measurement system is large enough, the “weighting down" effect gets large enough so that the electron is apparently at a fixed position rather than superimposed at many. This is what is described as the collapse.
I am aware of the very unscientific notion "weighting down" here. I see it as something like an analog to a lever vibrating at a resonance frequency, but when more and more weight is put to the lever, the amplitude of the oscillations goes down, until it would more or less seem to be sitting still. Here the load would be constituted by the increasing number of quantum states entagled to the measured electron. But of course it would be totally different mechanisms and phenomenons in the situation with super-positional flux and entanglement.
I am also aware that this view of superposition, imply some kind of time-related vibration/movements, which might be a totally wrong way of being it, but it could then (in my mind at least) for example be at such tiny time-scales, that for all practical reasons, it is actually superimposed at all positions simultaneous.
Now, as a novice in this field, I am sure that this explanation, either is completely up the walls, doesn't make any sense and misses some of the crucial point of the problem, or in best cases it might be a very crude and inexact but slightly overlapping description of some already existing theory. In any case, and the reason I am posting this at all, is that I would be interested to get educated about why this view of the problem is wrong or inaccurate, or if it is to some degree compatible with some existing interpretation and if so, how this interpretation goes.
Best Regards
Here is my very simple understanding of the quantum measurement problem: A waveform (Schrödinger equation) describes the various amplitudes for e.g. a superimposed electron at various positions, this when measured, collapses into a certain position, that can be predicted probabilistic as the square of the amplitude, or something like this.
*The measurement device is something that can amplify the signal enough to be readable (importantly it is very large in comparison to the electron).
Here is how I think of it: The unentangled electron (for example sent through a slit), gets entangled with whatever is doing the measuring of its position, and in a kind of cascade, the electron gets entangled with all quantum states of the whole and relatively large measurement apparatus. Then this entanglement “weight down" the fluctuation of the superimposed probability amplitude of the electron waveform, and thus it apparently collapses to a certain position. This happens with a probability proportional to the amplitudes at different superimposed positions (naturally as it is more likely to be there at the moment of the measurement). If/when the measurement system is large enough, the “weighting down" effect gets large enough so that the electron is apparently at a fixed position rather than superimposed at many. This is what is described as the collapse.
I am aware of the very unscientific notion "weighting down" here. I see it as something like an analog to a lever vibrating at a resonance frequency, but when more and more weight is put to the lever, the amplitude of the oscillations goes down, until it would more or less seem to be sitting still. Here the load would be constituted by the increasing number of quantum states entagled to the measured electron. But of course it would be totally different mechanisms and phenomenons in the situation with super-positional flux and entanglement.
I am also aware that this view of superposition, imply some kind of time-related vibration/movements, which might be a totally wrong way of being it, but it could then (in my mind at least) for example be at such tiny time-scales, that for all practical reasons, it is actually superimposed at all positions simultaneous.
Now, as a novice in this field, I am sure that this explanation, either is completely up the walls, doesn't make any sense and misses some of the crucial point of the problem, or in best cases it might be a very crude and inexact but slightly overlapping description of some already existing theory. In any case, and the reason I am posting this at all, is that I would be interested to get educated about why this view of the problem is wrong or inaccurate, or if it is to some degree compatible with some existing interpretation and if so, how this interpretation goes.
Best Regards
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