The main distinction between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics is the lack in the latter of a full mechanical determinism: different final states can arise from the same physical state, after the measurement. No hidden variable is supposed to exist, nothing can discriminate two apparently identical states even if they give a different result. In this paper we try to put the basis for a more fundamental theory that (approximately) coincides with quantum mechanics when comparing statistics, but it is more fundamental, since it mathematically describes measurement processes giving an explicit time evolution of the wave function during the collapse. The theory is deterministic even if the Heisenberg uncertainty principle is still valid. The theory distinguishes physical states that collapse and physical states that do not collapse. The theory can be made compatible with all experiments done in the past, but new phenomena such as violations of the Born law or the superposition principle could transpire. However, even if we have probably shown that it is possible to build ad hoc a theory that can describe both the wave function collapse and the Schroedinger linear evolution, a simple and unified construction is still missing.
In this paper we re-investigate the core of Schroedinger's 'cat paradox'. We argue that one has to distinguish clearly between superpositions of macroscopic cat states and superpositions of entangled states which comprise both the state of the cat. It is shown, that in the first instance recurrence to decoherence or other mechanisms is not necessary in this special case in order to explain the absence of macroscopic superpositions. Additionally, we present modified versions of two quantum optical experiments as experimenta crucis. Applied rigorously, quantum mechanical formalism reduces the pr…
A seldom recognized fundamental difficulty undermines the concept of individual ``state'' in the present formulations of quantum statistical mechanics (and in its quantum information theory interpretation as well). The difficulty is an unavoidable consequence of an almost forgotten corollary proved by E. Schroedinger in 1936 and perused by J.L. Park, Am. J. Phys., Vol. 36, 211 (1968). To resolve it, we must either reject as unsound the concept of state, or else undertake a serious reformulation of quantum theory and the role of statistics. We restate the difficulty and discuss a possible resol…
This article concerns a phenomenon of elementary quantum mechanics that is quite counter-intuitive, very non-classical, and apparently not widely known: a quantum particle can get reflected at a downward potential step. In contrast, classical particles get reflected only at upward steps. The conditions for this effect are that the wave length is much greater than the width of the potential step and the kinetic energy of the particle is much smaller than the depth of the potential step. This phenomenon is suggested by non-normalizable solutions to the time-independent Schroedinger equation, and…
The Schroedinger equation with the nonlinear term is derived by the natural generalization of the hydrodynamical model of quantum mechanics. The nonlinear term appears to be logically necessary because it enables explanation of the classical limit of the wave function, the collaps of the wave function and solves the Schroedinger cat paradox.
In this presentation, I argue that weak measurements empirically support the notion of quantum superpositions as statistical alternatives. In short, weak measurements show that Schroedinger's cat is already dead or alive before the measurement. The collapse of the wavefunction in a strong measurement should therefore be separated into the statistical selection of one of the available alternatives and a physical interaction that causes decoherence. The application to entanglement reveals that measurements in A have no physical effect in B, resolving the paradox of Bell`s inequality violation in…
The well known interpretational difficulties with nonlinear Schrödinger and von Neumann equations can be reduced to the problem of computing multiple-time correlation functions in the absence of Heisenberg picture. Having no Heisenberg picture one often resorts to Zeno-type reasoning which explicitly involves the projection postulate as a means of computing conditional and joint probabilities. Although the method works well in linear quantum mechanics, it completely fails for nonlinear evolutions. We propose an alternative way of performing the same task in linear quantum mechanics and show th…
The superposition principle is at the heart of quantum mechanics and at the root of many paradoxes arising when trying to extend its predictions to our everyday world. Schroedinger's cat is the prototype of such paradoxes and here, in contrast to many others, we choose to investigate it from the operational point of view. We experimentally demonstrate a universal strategy for producing an unambiguously distinguishable type of superposition, that of an arbitrary pure state and its orthogonal. It relies on only a limited amount of information about the input state to first generate its orthogona…
We discuss and solve the transport without transit quantum paradox recently introduced in the context of the adiabatic transport of a single particle or a Bose--Einstein condensate between the two extreme traps of a triple-well potential. To this aim, we address the corresponding quantum dynamics in terms of Bohmian trajectories and show that transport always implies transit through the middle well, in full agreement with the quantum continuity equation. This adiabatic quantum transport presents a very counterintuitive effect: by slowing down the total time duration of the transport process, u…
An investigation of Einstein's ``physical'' reality and the concept of quantum reality in terms of information theory suggests a solution to quantum paradoxes such as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) and the Schroedinger-cat paradoxes. Quantum reality, the picture based on unitarily evolving wavefunctions, is complete, but appears incomplete from the observer's point of view for fundamental reasons arising from the quantum information theory of measurement. Physical reality, the picture based on classically accessible observables is, in the worst case of EPR experiments, unrelated to the quan…
A quantum many-body model is presented with features similar to those of certain particle detectors. The energy spectrum contains a single metastable 'ready'-state and macroscopically-distinct 'pointer' states. Measurements do not pose paradoxes or require interventions outside the field theory formalism. Transitions into classical-like states can be triggered by a single particle with help of the thermal bath. Schroedinger cat states are associated with superpositions of inequivalent vacua, thus relating wavefunction collapse to the dynamics of symmetry breaking in phase transformations.
An alternative method is proposed for deriving the time dependent Schroedinger equation from the pictures of wave and matrix mechanics. The derivation is of a mixed classical quantum character, since time is treated as a classical variable, thus avoiding any controversy over its meaning in quantum mechanics. The derivation method proposed in this paper requires no ad hoc assumption and avoids going through a second-order differential equation that can be reduced to the well known time-dependent Schroedinger equation only postulating a complex wavefunction with an exponential time dependence, a…
One way of obtaining a version of quantum mechanics without observers, and thus of solving the paradoxes of quantum mechanics, is to modify the Schroedinger evolution by implementing spontaneous collapses of the wave function. An explicit model of this kind was proposed in 1986 by Ghirardi, Rimini, and Weber (GRW), involving a nonlinear, stochastic evolution of the wave function. We point out how, by focussing on the essential mathematical structure of the GRW model and a clear ontology, it can be generalized to (regularized) quantum field theories in a simple and natural way.
A complete solution to the long standing problem of basing Schroedinger quantum theory on standard stochastic theory is given. The solution covers all "single" particle three-dimensional Schroedinger theory linear or nonlinear and with any external potential present. The system is classical, set in a six-dimensional space and involves vacuum polarization as the background process. Basic vacuum polarization energy characterised oscillators are identified and then in assemblies are analysed in terms of energy occurrence frequencies. The orbits of polarization monopoles are given and shown to be …
Bohmian trajectories have been used for various purposes, including the numerical simulation of the time-dependent Schroedinger equation and the visualization of time-dependent wave functions. We review the purpose they were invented for: to serve as the foundation of quantum mechanics, i.e., to explain quantum mechanics in terms of a theory that is free of paradoxes and allows an understanding that is as clear as that of classical mechanics. Indeed, they succeed in serving that purpose in the context of a theory known as Bohmian mechanics, to which this article is an introduction.
In order to resolve the measurement problem of Quantum Mechanics, non-unitary time evolution has been derived from the unitarity of standard quantum formalism. New wave functions of free and non-free quantum systems follow from Schroedinger equation after inserting an ansatz. Quantum systems show up as probability waves before measurement. A pure entangled state of a composite system evolves non-unitarily, only to disentangle itself into a definite state after reduction at the measurement point. A classical space-time point is created momentarily in this event. Unitarity is restored at that po…
We carefully examine the thermodynamic consequences of the repeated partial projection model for coupling a quantum system to an arbitrary series of environments under feedback control. This paper provides observational definitions of heat and work that can be realized in current laboratory setups. In contrast to other definitions, it uses only properties of the environment and the measurement outcomes, avoiding references to the `measurement' of the central system's state in any basis. These definitions are consistent with the usual laws of thermodynamics at all temperatures, while never requ…
It is shown that the classical book by von Neumann proposing dynamics of measured systems with "reduction (or collapse) of system's wave packet" contains also hints how to avoid this discontinuity in time evolution of the measured system (hence it is in this point not quite selfconsistent). The possibility of avoiding that collapse is a consequence of the observation that any "human observer" can observe simultaneously just mutually compatible "observables". In the paper it is shown how to describe this fact and its consequences. The proposed interpretation of quantum measurement leads also to…
Generalized solutions of the standard gauge transformation equations are presented and discussed in physical terms. They go beyond the usual Dirac phase factors and they exhibit nonlocal quantal behavior, with the well-known Relativistic Causality of classical fields affecting directly the phases of wavefunctions in the Schroedinger Picture. These nonlocal phase behaviors, apparently overlooked in path-integral approaches, give a natural account of the dynamical nonlocality character of the various (even static) Aharonov-Bohm phenomena, while at the same time they seem to respect Causality. In…
It is shown that many dissipative phenomena of "old" quantum mechanics which appeared 100 years ago in the form of the statistics of quantum thermal noise and quantum spontaneous jumps, have never been explained by the "new" conservative quantum mechanics discovered 75 years ago by Heisenberg and Schroedinger. This led to numerous quantum paradoxes which are reconsidered in this paper. The development of quantum measurement theory, initiated by von Neumann, indicated a possibility for resolution of this interpretational crisis by divorcing the algebra of the dynamical generators from the algeb…
The aim of the paper is to derive essential elements of quantum mechanics from a parametric structure extending that of traditional mathematical statistics. The main extensions, which also can be motivated from an applied statistics point of view, relate to symmetry, the choice between complementary experiments and hence complementary parametric models, and use of the fact that there for simple systems always is a limited experimental basis that is common to all potential experiments. Concepts related to transformation groups together with the statistical concept of sufficiency are used in the…
The restricted-path-integral (RPI) theory of continuous quantum measurements including the evolution of the measured systems and phenomenon of decoherence is reviewed. The measured system is considered as an open quantum system but without usage of any model of the measurement (of the measuring medium or the system's environment). The propagator of a measured system (conditioned by the measurement readout) is presented by RPI. In the important special case of monitoring an observable the propagator and the system's wave function satisfy Schroedinger equation with a complex Hamiltonian (dependi…
Prevention of a quantum system's time evolution by repetitive, frequent measurements of the system's state has been called the quantum Zeno effect (or paradox). Here we investigate theoretically and numerically the effect of repeated measurements on the quantum dynamics of the multilevel systems that exhibit the quantum localization of the classical chaos. The analysis is based on the wave function and Schroedinger equation, without introduction of the density matrix. We show how the quantum Zeno effect in simple few-level systems can be recovered and understood by formal modeling the measurem…
A history of the discovery of quantum mechanics and paradoxes of its interpretation is reconsidered from the modern point of view of quantum stochastics and information. It is argued that in the orthodox quantum mechanics there is no place for quantum phenomenology such as events. The development of quantum measurement theory, initiated by von Neumann, and Bell's conceptual critics of hidden variable theories indicated a possibility for resolution of this crisis. This can be done by divorcing the algebra of the dynamical generators and an extended algebra of the potential (quantum) and the act…
In the absence of a satisfactory interpretation of quantum theory, physical law lacks physical basis. This paper reviews the orthodox, or Dirac-von Neumann interpretation, and makes explicit that Hilbert space describes propositions about measurement results. Kets are defined as conditional clauses referring to measurements in a formal language. It is seen that these clauses are elements of a Hilbert space, such that addition is logical disjunction, the dual space consists of consequent clauses, and the inner product is a set of statements in the subjunctive mood. The probability interpretatio…
