Thought Provoker
Posts: 530
Joined: April 2007
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Continuing...
As C.J.O'Brien indicated, the reason quantum mechanics appears weird is because our intuition is based on our experiences in the macro world. What if the quantum world is the one that is normal and it is the macro world that is weird?
Our intuitions perceive matter as solid objects obeying the laws of Newtonian physics operating in a universe of Euclidean geometry. The concept of time is like a frame by frame movie with each frame containing a copy of the entire 3 dimensional universe.
In 1905 Einstein came along and started messing up this view. I suggest the implications of what was started 100 years ago are just now beginning to fully manifest themselves.
Einstein proposed Special Relativity as a temporary, and incomplete, explanation of scientific observations. The idea was to suggest multiple frames of reference to deal with the constant speed of light. No one frame of reference was supreme, everything was “relative”. Dealing with the Twin Paradox was done by mumbling something about accelerations. This allowed for keeping the Euclidean geometry view of the universe.
General Relativity presumed a fixed, inertial frame of reference. This model was also consistent with scientific observations. It accomplished this by suggesting an entirely different geometry for the universe, Minkowskian Geometry (Minkowski was one of Einstein's teachers). Space/time has four complex dimensions and is curved. The shortest distance between two points is no longer a straight line. The Twin Paradox is solved as a geometry problem (the traveling twin takes a short cut).
So we had two mathematical models that were consistent with scientific observations. Which one was correct? While General Relativity was pretty much presumed correct, when an experiment was conducted with a jet flying around the world (both East and West), no doubt remained. Minkowskian Geometry is reality, Euclidean geometry is not.
So what is the big deal about Minkowskian Geometry?
In Euclidean geometry the change in distance (dL) can be calculated by taking the square-root of the sum of the squares.
IOW, dL^2 = dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2.
In Minkowskian Geometry, the equation becomes dL^2 = dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2 – dt^2.
The fourth complex dimension, time, contains the square-root of negative one. Squaring it results in a negative. This is how the traveling twin can take a shortcut. Things get interesting at the speed of light. In the case of a photon traveling from a star light-years away to a detector on Earth, the Minkowskian distance traveled is ZERO!
This brings us to quantum mechanics and GHZ states. There is no mystery or even magic in understanding how three separate photons could be entangled in Minkowskian Geometry. Heck, they can be thought of as the same photon! EPR paradox, superposition, etc all melt away once you combine General Relativity with Quantum Theory. However, particles lose their identity in the process.
There are two main prevailing quantum interpretations, Many Worlds and Copenhagen derivatives. Penrose’s OR model is a Copenhagen derivative. With Penrose, everything is a wavefunction. For example, a “photon” is a standing wave in Minkowskian Geometry.
Decoherence is the Objective Reduction (OR) of the wavefunction (other Copenhagen derivatives will refer to this as the waveform collapse).
Many Worlds is a metaphysical/mathematical construct that is offered to allow for the dogmatic resistance against giving up the idea that materialist particles are operating in an Euclidean universe. Richardthughes provided a link supporting a mathematical model.
Old habits die hard, but they do die... eventually.
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