Help a Quantum Noob with the Wavefunction Collapse?

[Meddle]

If matter goes from a superposed state to a collapsed state when measured, how did scientists see the interference pattern in the double slit experiment, doesn't the surface that the photons hit after passing through the slits count as a measuring device?

Also, is there any updated Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics aside from the Copenhagen Interpretation that doesn't conflict with paradoxes like "Schrödinger's Cat"?

 

[K^2]

Wave function collapses into the eigen state of the measurement operator. If you try to detect which path the particle took, these are your eigen states. For the detector showing interference patterns, the eigen states are completely different. That's the measurement of particle's position at the screen, rather than at the slits. Different operators, different eigen states, different collapse.

But yeah, the state still does collapse due to the measurement. It's just that every state to which it collapses still involves particle going through both slits.

 

[strangerep]

If matter goes from a superposed state to a collapsed state when measured, how did scientists see the interference pattern in the double slit experiment, doesn't the surface that the photons hit after passing through the slits count as a measuring device?

Also, is there any updated Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics aside from the Copenhagen Interpretation that doesn't conflict with paradoxes like "Schrödinger's Cat"?

One wastes less intellectual energy if one avoids collapse-based interpretations of QM.

See my response #4 in this thread:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=460523

 

[K^2]

Except, you know, things like Quantum Eraser kind of break that concept.