Recent content by Ben vdP

The issue has become more clearer now and I think these posts misses the point. It is not about individual elementary particles at all. Suppose you are writing down a description for the state of a free particle fp with schrodinger equation and wave function ... After stating that it describes...

I can agree with that. p.s. Post 8 was not really relevant at all, but lets leave that

It is not just a choice. By describing it as an individual physical system, it is being overlooked that every such physical system is like any other such physical system.

Because elementary particles are identical. The indistinguishability is a consequence of that. A photon may have a different energy, but still a photon is like any other photon. It starts to look now that by interpreting a physical system as an ensemble the concept of identical particles got...

It is not about describing a single elementary particle, but about an individual physical system. Let me guess, you never had a real look at the link provided at the beginning. There can be different views and opinions about it, but included is a discussion about what an individual physical...

No, there is no such requirement indeed. Thus you are trying to describe with a wave function a system and interpretate it as an "individual physical system" (and not an ensemble) based upon underlying elementary particles that in principle don't have such individuality. I got the impression...

You have corrected me and rightfully so for not taking sufficient time for it. It is very difficult to express these things. Elementary particles simply don't have any individuality. You can distinguish them if they are spatial apart etc.. If in an interpretation it is posed that you are...

OK, during the weekend I had some time to think it over. The electrons cannot be labeled if they each have a probability for presence at a certain position in such a system. That can be illustrated as follows. If it would have been possible to make a measurement at the location and finding an...

Yes, I understand that. You cannot label them if the different electrons have a probability to be in the same position in such a quantum system. By the way "shut up and calculate" is actually interpretation dependant. According to Ballentine that statement is superfluous. So is the idea that...

Indeed wave function, just being sloppy. From the reference given earlier (Ballentine): (II) Interpretations which assert that a pure state provides a complete and exhaustive description of an individual system (e.g., an electron). This class contains a great variety of members, from...

I agree that QFT should bring better answers. The implications on what you might still be able to tell on macroscopic level could be very complicated.

What is the wave the answer to? Does it represent an individual physical system or an ensemble or something only mathematically or something else? Any choice here is already a particular interpretation. Also if you wanted to say that photons do not follow a particular path but multiple paths...

On one hand, a minimal view of quantum mechanics is to see the Schrödinger equation and wavefunction as part of a description for a "generic" quantum system or ensemble of identical prepared systems ala Ballentine ( The Statistical Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics ). In the act of measurement...

That charge is the quantum number associated with internal U1 gauge symmetry is something that I can live with. It may be futile to look for some field characterisation or geometric explanation of charge. That physics is only an empirical science can be nuanced somewhat, it leads also to...

An elementary particle has properties like spin and charge. With spin there can still be some kind of notion of rotation, but how can charge be characterized? Does there exists some underlying views or models on charge? Pragmatically, charge can be seen as a strength of coupling with photon...