Eye in the Sky
I am beginning to get an inkling here; thanks (now I remember why I liked physics so much a long time ago)
It seems reasonable that any formulation must include the measuring apparatus
However, I'm not clear about your reference to Hilbert spaces other than they can include...
Doc,
Thanks for reply.
<As soon as an irreversible macroscopic change has occurred, the initial state can be considered to have decohered into a mixture thereby destroying any interference pattern. It doesn't matter whether a person looks at the data or not.>
This seems logical to me...
Dave,
The question is really "what the hell does observed mean"
Eye in the Sky
(by the way, why that moniker ? are you currently on the space shuttle)
Your fomalism appears (to me anyway) to be adequate
I now have some understanding of the terms "unitary evolution" and "state...
I have no experience calculating wave function/prob. for a wave function that does not interact with anything. When it interacts or decays, you can calc prob of what happens and when (if I remember correctly)
What causes the "collapse" of wave function, and why is it non-unitary ?
What...
Not a chance ! If I understand what you mean by "unitary evolution", that is
what we did back in my day "state reduction" means nothing to me
A small amount of math may be appropriate here
I really appreciate your taking the time to discuss this with me.
I would like to stick to a...
Thanks
I am not familiar with the term "decoherence", after my time ?<g>
double slit:
Anyhow, it seems to me that anything that interacts with the photon
must collapse the wave function even if that is never "observed" by
the experimenter
this would seem to suggest that the wave...
I am old, about to retire, and have been reading some metaphysics books.
I have not studied physics for 35 years (Feynman diagrams were new then!)
and I realize that I need help in understanding some basic concepts in
order to judge these things.
So, my question:
This famous...