NationStates Jolt Archive

If the conditions exist somewhere for an photon to be spontatiously created, but any photon that is created there doesn't interact with anything else for the rest of time, does the photon exist?

No, it does not "exist" in the classical sense until it interacts with something. This is called "collapsing superposition". The wave state of the photon doesn't collapse until something interacts with it.

I've got a far, far more mind numbing quantum thought puzzle.

No, it does not "exist" in the classical sense until it interacts with something. This is called "collapsing superposition". The wave state of the photon doesn't collapse until something interacts with it.

But surely until the wave form is collapsed, it both exists and yet also does not simultaneously?

I've got a far, far more mind numbing quantum thought puzzle.

Do tell.

No, it does not "exist" in the classical sense until it interacts with something. This is called "collapsing superposition". The wave state of the photon doesn't collapse until something interacts with it.

I've got a far, far more mind numbing quantum thought puzzle.

OK, but existence is simply having a quantum wavestate. So surely the photon does exist, as the wavestate was there for the superposition to collapse.

I've got a far, far more mind numbing quantum thought puzzle.
What is it?

No, it does not "exist" in the classical sense until it interacts with something. This is called "collapsing superposition". The wave state of the photon doesn't collapse until something interacts with it.

I've got a far, far more mind numbing quantum thought puzzle.
What is it???

No, it does not "exist" in the classical sense until it interacts with something. This is called "collapsing superposition". The wave state of the photon doesn't collapse until something interacts with it.

I've got a far, far more mind numbing quantum thought puzzle.
Could it not be argued that it does exist, and that our mathematical description (ie. quantum mechanics) is simply unable to tell until such a time as it interacts?

Could it not be argued that it does exist, and that our mathematical description (ie. quantum mechanics) is simply unable to tell until such a time as it interacts?
I don't think so. Hiesenberg pretty well put that to rest with the uncertainty principle, yes?

I don't think so. Hiesenberg pretty well put that to rest with the uncertainty principle, yes?

Um... no. The uncertainty principle means we can never be sure it exists at all. Which is why quantum mechanics has it existing and not existing simultaneously. Schrodinger and his sodding cat, and all that.

What is it?

Proof of the multiverse - but I have to go to a meeting, so I'll be back later to post it.

Um... no. The uncertainty principle means we can never be sure it exists at all. Which is why quantum mechanics has it existing and not existing simultaneously. Schrodinger and his sodding cat, and all that.

Not quite. Heisenberg simply told us that we had to choose what we wanted to know. Because in finding one thing up we messed up something else.
Schrodinger and his cat, have nothing to do with this. They are simply a description of the probabilities of a waveform collapse from a superposition to normal.
Something in superposition still exists, it is just it has not quite "decided" in which way it will be manifest.

The photon in the problem above, exists in a wave superposition state of "photon" and "no photon" until it is measured (or interacted with).

Schroedinger's Cat is the same problem. The cat, until we open the box, exists in a wave superposition state of "live cat" and "dead cat".

Measurement (or interaction) collapses the superposition state into reality.

This sort of collapse is apparently going on all the time with little fanfare.

This sort of collapse is apparently going on all the time with little fanfare.

Except that it is the reason that Black holes are not actually black.

Quantum mechanics, when used in the context of time travel, has a so-called many-universe interpretation. This was first proposed by Hugh Everett in 1957. Everett says that our reality is only one of many equally valid universes. There is a collection of universes, called a multiverse. He proposed that the universes we see are just one of an infinite number of universes, existing side by side. Each of these universes are constantly splitting, so there is a univese in which Kennedy died and one in which he lived. On in which you wash your car and one in which you don't. Every multiverse has copies of every person, structure, and atom. For every possible event, every possible outcome is said to be played out on a different universe. This interpretation of quantum mechanics is quite controversial however, but does elicit the notion that it may be impossible to travel
backward in time to our own universe or dimension.
Consider the following patterns formed by the light passing through a wall with one slit, two slits, and four slits. It is easy to explain these patterns by giving light the property of a wave. When passing through multiple slits, light waves interfere with each other to add to or cancel each other. The waves produce patterns of alternating light and dark. Einstein found that light also has the property of particles. Since light contains billions of particle, or photons, it is not hard to imagine all of these photons flying through the slits and interfering with one another just like the waves did.
But, we can eliminate the interaction of the photons with each other by sending one photon at a time through the slits. This has been done experimentally by making a beam of light so weak that only one photon at a time escaped. Putting very sensitive detectors behind the wall with slits enables us to detect where the photons hit.

After a few hours, the same pattern (as with a full beam of light) is formed. Light and dark bands.
Obviously, as with the experiment with a full beam of light, something is interfering with the photons. But we know that only one photon is going in at a time. So what is causing the interference?

Quantum mechanics, when used in the context of time travel, has a so-called many-universe interpretation. This was first proposed by Hugh Everett in 1957. Everett says that our reality is only one of many equally valid universes. There is a collection of universes, called a multiverse. He proposed that the universes we see are just one of an infinite number of universes, existing side by side. Each of these universes are constantly splitting, so there is a univese in which Kennedy died and one in which he lived. On in which you wash your car and one in which you don't. Every multiverse has copies of every person, structure, and atom. For every possible event, every possible outcome is said to be played out on a different universe. This interpretation of quantum mechanics is quite controversial however, but does elicit the notion that it may be impossible to travel
backward in time to our own universe or dimension.


hmm, has it ever been thought that these could possibly be locations in an extra mathmatical dimension? they could exist within our own unverse, but we remain in one location while all other locations in this dimension are slightly different.