The report presents an exhaustive review of the recent attempt to overcome the difficulties that standard quantum mechanics meets in accounting for the measurement (or macro-objectification) problem, an attempt based on the consideration of nonlinear and stochastic modifications of the Schroedinger equation. The proposed new dynamics is characterized by the feature of not contradicting any known fact about microsystems and of accounting, on the basis of a unique, universal dynamical principle, for wavepacket reduction and for the classical behavior of macroscopic systems. We recall the motivations for the new approach and we briefly review the other proposals to circumvent the above mentioned difficulties which appeared in the literature. In this way we make clear the conceptual and historical context characterizing the new approach. After having reviewed the mathematical techniques (stochastic differential calculus) which are essential for the rigorous and precise formulation of the new dynamics, we discuss in great detail its implications and we stress its relevant conceptual achievements. The new proposal requires also to work out an appropriate interpretation; a procedure which leads us to a reconsideration of many important issues about the conceptual status of theories based on a genuinely Hilbert space description of natural processes. We also discuss the possibility and the problems one meets in trying to develop an analogous formalism for the relativistic case. Finally we discuss the experimental implications of the new dynamics for various physical processes which should allow, in principle, to test it against quantum mechanics.
As it is well known, classical mechanics consists of several basic features like determinism, reductionism, completeness of knowledge and mechanicism. In this article the basic assumptions are discussed which underlie those features. It is shown that these basic assumptions - though universally assumed up the beginnings of the XX century - are far from being obvious. Finally it is shown that - to a certain extent - there is nothing wrong in assuming these basic postulates. Rather, the error lies in the epistemological absolutization of the theory, which was considered as a mirroring of Nature.
Geometric quantum computation is the idea that geometric phases can be used to implement quantum gates, i.e., the basic elements of the Boolean network that forms a quantum computer. Although originally thought to be limited to adiabatic evolution, controlled by slowly changing parameters, this form of quantum computation can as well be realized at high speed by using nonadiabatic schemes. Recent advances in quantum gate technology have allowed for experimental demonstrations of different types of geometric gates in adiabatic and nonadiabatic evolution. Here, we address some conceptual issues …
After short historical overview we describe the difficulties with application of standard QFT methods in quantum gravity (QG). The incompatibility of QG with the use of classical continuous space-time required conceptually new approach. We present briefly three proposals: loop quantum gravity (LQG), the field-theoretic framework on noncommutative space-time and QG models formulated on discretized (triangularized) space-time. We evaluate these models as realizing expected important properties of QG: background independence, consistent quantum diffeomorphisms, noncommutative or discrete structur…
In view of the arguments put forward by Clifton and Monton [1999] in a recent preprint, we reconsider the alleged conflict of dynamical reduction models with the enumeration principle. We prove that our original analysis of such a problem is correct, that the GRW model does not meet any difficulty and that the reasoning of the above authors is inappropriate since it does not take into account the correct interpretation of the dynamical reduction theories.
Unlike standard quantum mechanics, dynamical reduction models assign no particular a priori status to `measurement processes', `apparata', and `observables', nor self-adjoint operators and positive operator valued measures enter the postulates defining these models. In this paper, we show why and how the Hilbert-space operator formalism, which standard quantum mechanics postulates, can be derived from the fundamental evolution equation of dynamical reduction models. Far from having any special ontological meaning, we show that within the dynamical reduction context the operator formalism is ju…
We review the major achievements of the dynamical reduction program, showing why and how it provides a unified, consistent description of physical phenomena, from the microscopic quantum domain to the macroscopic classical one. We discuss the difficulties in generalizing the existing models in order to comprise also relativistic quantum field theories. We point out possible future lines of research, ranging from mathematical physics to phenomenology.
The concept of proper time cannot be just taken over from classical theory and applied to quantum theory. There are a number of serious ambiguities related to it. Similarly, the concept of mass has some inconsistencies attached to it. We argue that both of these concepts only make sense if they are included in the theory as dynamical variables, and subsequently as conjugate operators. We discuss the necessary uncertainty principle between them.
Characteristic length of mass density resolution in dynamical reduction models is calculated utilizing energy conservation law and viable cosmological model with decreasing energy density of vacuum (dark energy density). The value found, $ \sim 10^{-5}$ cm, numerically coincides with phenomenological spatial short-length cutoff parameter introduced in the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber model. It seems that our results support the gravity induced mechanism of dynamical reduction.
We analyze a recent paper in which an alleged devastating criticism to the so called GRW proposal to account for the objectification of the properties of macroscopic systems has been presented and we show that the author has not taken into account the precise implications of the GRW theory. This fact makes his conclusions basically wrong. We also perform a survey of measurement theory aimed to better focus the physical and the conceptual aspects of the so-called macro-objectification problem.
We review how an algebraic formulation for the dynamics of a physical system allows to describe a reduction procedure for both classical and quantum evolutions.
In this paper we reconsider the constraints which are imposed by relativistic requirements to any model of dynamical reduction. We review the debate on the subject and we call attention on the fundamental contributions by Aharonov and Albert. Having done this we present a new formulation, which is much simpler and more apt for our analysis, of the proposal put forward by these authors to perform measurements of nonlocal observables by means of local interactions and detections. We take into account recently proposed relativistic models of dynamical reduction and we show that, in spite of some …
A model is developed to describe state reduction in an EPR experiment as a continuous, relativistically-invariant, dynamical process. The system under consideration consists of two entangled isospin particles each of which undergo isospin measurements at spacelike separated locations. The equations of motion take the form of stochastic differential equations. These equations are solved explicitly in terms of random variables with a priori known probability distribution in the physical probability measure. In the course of solving these equations a correspondence is made between the state reduc…
Bassi and Ghirardi have developed a new theory to address the measurement problem based upon non-linear and stochastic modifications of the Schroedinger equation, which has been given the name Quantum Mechanical Spontaneous Localization or QMSL, with one of the emphasis dealing with reduction or wavefunction collapse within the nervous system. Analysis of this portion of their theory reveals that it faces several problems.
We analyze in mathematical detail, within the framework of the QMUPL model of spontaneous wave function collapse, the von Neumann measurement scheme for the measurement of a 1/2 spin particle. We prove that, according to the equation of the model: i) throughout the whole measurement process, the pointer of the measuring device is always perfectly well localized in space; ii) the probabilities for the possible outcomes are distributed in agreement with the Born probability rule; iii) at the end of the measurement the state of the microscopic system has collapsed to the eigenstate corresponding …
A new model is proposed for the purpose of modelling the ``wave function collapse'' of a two-state quantum system. The collapse to a classical state is driven by a nonlinear evolution equation with an extreme sensitivity to absolute phase. It is hypothesized that the phase, or part of it, is displaying chaotic behaviour. This chaotic behaviour can then be responsible for the apparent indeterminacy we are experiencing for a single quantum system. Through this randomness, the statistical ``ensemble'' behaviour, due to Born, to describe a single quantum system, is no longer needed.
In the Kogut-Susskind formulation of lattice gauge theories, a set of quantum numbers resides at the ends of each link to characterize the vertex-local gauge field. We discuss the role of these quantum numbers in propagating correlations and supporting entanglement that ensures each vertex remains gauge invariant, despite time evolution induced by operators with (only) partial access to each vertex Hilbert space. Applied to recent proposals for eliminating vertex-local Hilbert spaces in quantum simulation, we describe how the required entanglement is generated via delocalization of the time ev…
Geometric quantization procedures go usually through an extension of the original theory (pre-quantization) and a subsequent reduction (selection of the physical states). In this context we describe a full geometrical mechanism which provides dynamically the desired reduction.
The dynamics of a quantum system with internal degrees of freedom undergoing spontaneous collapse in the position basis are analysed; e.g., neutral mesons or neutrinos. Surprisingly, the value of the Heaviside function $θ(x)$ at $x=0$ that can in general be chosen in the interval [0,1] leads to different physical predictions. For the QMUPL (Quantum Mechanics with Universal Position Localization) model only a single value leads to probabilities conserving the particle number. Herewith the physical properties of the noise field can be constrained. This opens a road to study the physical properti…
In the studies of the squeezing it is customary to focus more attention on the particular squeezed states and their evolution than on the dynamical operations that could squeeze simultaneously some wider families of quantum states, independently of their initial shape. We look for new steps in this direction, carried out by softly acting external fields which might produce the squeezing of the canonical observables $q,p$ of charged particles. The works on these problems collect so many valuable results that the question is whether something more is indeed something more in our knowledge. Yet w…
We consider the effect of replacing in stochastic differential equations leading to the dynamical collapse of the statevector, white noise stochastic processes with non white ones. We prove that such a modification can be consistently performed without altering the most interesting features of the previous models. One of the reasons to discuss this matter derives from the desire of being allowed to deal with physical stochastic fields, such as the gravitational one, which cannot give rise to white noises. From our point of view the most relevant motivation for the approach we propose here deri…
In previous work, I described several examples combining reduction and emergence: where reduction is understood a la Ernest Nagel, and emergence is understood as behaviour or properties that are novel (by some salient standard). Here, my aim is again to reconcile reduction and emergence, for a case which is apparently more problematic than those I treated before: renormalization. Renormalization is a vast subject. So I confine myself to emphasizing how the modern approach to renormalization (initiated by Wilson and others between 1965 and 1975), when applied to quantum field theories, illustra…
We provide general guidelines for generalizing dynamical reduction models to curved spacetimes and propose a class of generally covariant relativistic versions of the GRW model. We anticipate that the collapse operators of our class of models may play a rôle in a yet-to-be-formulated theory of semiclassical gravity with collapses. We show explicitly that the collapse operators map a dense domain of states that are initially Hadamard to final Hadamard states -- a property that we expect will be needed for the construction of such a semiclassical theory. Finally, we provide a simple example in w…
Inspired by possible connections between gravity and foundational question in quantum theory, we consider an approach for the adaptation of objective collapse models to a general relativistic context. We apply these ideas to a list of open problems in cosmology and quantum gravity, such as the emergence of seeds of cosmic structure, the black hole information issue, the problem of time in quantum gravity and, in a more speculative manner, to the nature of dark energy and the origin of the very special initial state of the universe. We conclude that objective collapse models offer a rather prom…
