Recent content by secur

Right. Steering definitely requires entanglement. For this paper it's defined as follows: "From a quantum information perspective, EPR-steering is equivalent to the task of entanglement verification when Bob (and his detectors) can be trusted but Alice (or her detectors) cannot. This is...

From the reference, "If Alice were simply to detect the presence or absence of a photon, then Bob’s measurement of the same observable will be anticorrelated with Alice's, as in ref. 42. However, this does not prove that Alice’s measurement affected Bob’s local state because such perfect...

Of course I could explain it. It's not a personal opinion, it's a fact - of philosophy. Or, if you prefer, a fact of logic and reasoning, or of mathematical foundations. Obviously you can't prove it within the realm of physics. Unfortunately mainstream physicists are wrong on this issue, but...

Infinity is not physical. Any theory that depends on or assumes the physical reality of infinity is twaddle. Concepts of infinite time, or infinite spatial extent of universe, or infinitely fine granularity of space and time, or infinite density, or infinite many-worlds, etc, are not allowable -...

Actually theoretical physics also has many worthwhile aspects. It's very simple: the worth of a theory is proportional to the amount of data, experimental and observational, it encompasses. And inversely proportional to the publicity. How does this relate to OP? MWI as a mathematical tool is...

Applied physics has many other achievements than just semiconductors. Some topics and technologies include lasers, MRI, nukes, sonar, radar, electronics, nanotechnology, all sorts of materials science ... probably one could list hundreds of items, if one wanted to go to the trouble. The...

@houlahound, it's a good question although I can't endorse your negative characterization ... The best answer to "what good is MWI?" I've seen is in Hugh Everett's original paper: "Relative State" Formulation of Quantum Mechanics, by Hugh Everett III, in REVIEWS OF MODERN PHYSICS VOLUME 29...

Ok, as I suspected, the mention of scattering is due to the initial confusion. You're giving an example of another spherically symmetric problem (scattering) without discrete spectra, to show that can't be the reason for discrete eigenvalues in this case. That makes sense, as far as it goes...

Yes, that's exactly what I'm referring to. I was trying to guess why you said there was a continuous spectrum. I'm not forgetting about scattering states, I didn't know scattering was involved at all! Yes, they do include states of continuous spectrum. Please remember the OP title is...

If the only problem with "logically consistent" collapse is that it "sounds ridiculous" to some people - a purely subjective judgment - then, there's really no problem with collapse.

Okay, reading the OP, I see what you mean. It's not clear; I'd say the discreteness is also relevant, but let's see what OP says. Of course, we get the same energy level with different radii because kinetic energy is also involved, not just potential. Yes, the spectrum becomes continuous in...

We're talking about a spherically symmetric differential equation whose solutions are the spherical harmonics. The "condition" imposed is that the (angular) solution at a point (x) must equal the solution at point (x+2 pi). This can be viewed as a "boundary condition", and as the reason for the...

I'm not sure these are the only problems with this heuristic, although indeed they are problems. But we already know it's inaccurate. If not, it wouldn't be a heuristic at all, but a fact, or a theorem. The question is whether it's properly called that, or a myth. The question is really in the...

Yes, Stephen Hawking says it's a heuristic, and he's right. No, the particle-antiparticle explanation is a heuristic not a myth. From the dictionary at https://www.merriam-webster.com : heuristic: involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving myth: an unfounded...

A few years ago I made an informal survey of physicists I know personally (not on the net) re. this question. FWIW here are the answers I got. They believe it is a real phenomenon not just theoretical possibility. Since it's so very weak there's no chance of observing it directly for the...