Dyson's View Of Wavefunction Collapse

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Freeman Dyson critiques the concept of wavefunction collapse in quantum mechanics, arguing that it misrepresents the wavefunction as a physical entity rather than a probabilistic description. He asserts that when an observation is made, knowledge replaces uncertainty, making the wavefunction irrelevant rather than collapsing. The discussion raises questions about the nature of physical reality and the implications of the PBR theorem, which suggests that if an objective reality exists, the wavefunction must also be part of it. Participants express confusion over the necessity of the collapse concept, suggesting it complicates rather than clarifies quantum mechanics. The conversation highlights ongoing debates about the interpretation of quantum mechanics and the role of measurement in understanding physical phenomena.
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Morbert said:
Wouldn't this require perfect resolution to be true? And perfect resolution would not be possible even in principle due to the Wigner-Araki-Yanase theorem.

Instead actual position measurements would be modeled with some POVM and yield a highly localized distribution.
Born's rule in all its textbook forms claim that measurements produce eigenvalues, and don't say anything about resolution. This shows that Born's rule is an idealization, but people talk as if it were a universal basic law. Real measurement is something quite complicated,
 
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