Cramer's Transactional Interpretation

[Amanita-Virosa]

Does anyone have any opinions on the transactional interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? Does anyone really take it seriously. I know criticisms have been levied against it (to do with causal loops) but others have proposed resolutions to this problem without compromising the overall integrety of the idea.

I'm interested to here peoples opinions as it doesn't seem to have attracted that much attention.

 

[vanesch]

I asked a similar question a while ago. What I understand of it, is that it doesn't really give a clear picture beyond the 1-particle wavefunction situation. It's not clear how to interpret a general wavefunction of many particles. At least, that's what I saw of it.

 

[moving finger]

Does anyone have any opinions on the transactional interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? Does anyone really take it seriously. I know criticisms have been levied against it (to do with causal loops) but others have proposed resolutions to this problem without compromising the overall integrety of the idea.

I'm interested to here peoples opinions as it doesn't seem to have attracted that much attention.

I find it surprising that few people seem to take it more seriously.

To me, it seems to provide an intuitively easy way to understand entanglement, and provides a way to address the apparent temporal asymmetries at the quantum level.

I think the reason it is not taken seriously is because it requires adopting fundamentally new concepts about time (not that this is a bad thing - since we do not have a coherent interpretation of just what "time" is anyway).

MF

 

[zetafunction]

i did not understand the interpretation very well

- does a time-travelling (backwards) wave function exists?

- Is there a wave-particle duality of this is just an illusion??

- How does probability appear ??

 

[conway]

If we have a theory where everything is particle-particle interactions, then we ought to also have a theory where everything is wave-wave interactions. The philosophical difficulties with the particle picture are well-known...Schroedinger's cat, EPR, etc. The Copenhagen interpretation, with its focus on oberver and measurement, is supposed to resolve these difficulties. The wave picture has its own set of problems. It seems that according to the transactional interpretation, the backwards-travelling waves are the answer to these difficulties.

Therefore the wave interpretation of quantum mechanics ought to be on an equal footing with the particle interpretation.

 

[rkastner]

Yes, I take it seriously and yes, I think it's underappreciated and yes, I think it
presents us with a new paradigm of spacetime (and beyond).

See my new thread inviting questions/comments/concerns about TI:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=380128


R. E. Kastner