Message: 2 Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 11:53:37 -0700 From: meekerdb <meekerdb@verizon.net> To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [math-fun] quantum theory foundational issues, my theory of how they should be resolved Message-ID: <51F568B1.3030004@verizon.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed On 7/28/2013 7:12 AM, Warren D Smith wrote:

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From: Gareth McCaughan <gareth.mccaughan@pobox.com> On 27/07/2013 11:18, Warren D Smith wrote: So for example, why do you not experience being in a superposition of living in Paris and Tokyo? Because [...] Why would you expect

a superposition of experiencing being in Paris and experiencing being in Tokyo

to resemble, in any way,

experiencing being in a superposition of Paris and Tokyo?

In default of some reason to expect that, I don't see why the question arises at all. And I know of no such reason, though I'm not a QM expert and maybe there is one that I've never encountered.

--this is an excellent point, and there's plenty of arguments of that vague ilk which may sound good..., but the problem is, these questions don't seem addressable by mathematics or precise reasoning. So when various philoso-physicists (at least those in the Everett camp) are going around saying "the foundational problems of QM are solved" it's all hogwash. It's basically religion, and hopes+dreams, not science. That debate probably would never end and it'd never be clear if it really solves the problem.

However, with my approach to the foundations of QM, the gordian knot is cut. It could really be science.

And not only that, I can kick their asses with more paradoxical issues. For example, why is the "position basis" favored over others?

It isn't in all cases. Atoms, for example, are usually found in energy eigenstates. --the "energy of atom" operator in this case commutes with "position of atom" operator so this is not a valid objection. However, I would agree electrons in metals, say, can be regarded as delocalized.

Decoherence tends to localize things. Give them precise positions. Why? With pure QM unitary symmetry, no basis favored over any other. Well, my view explains that. And if (say) in the early universe, everything were in a momentum eigenstate, with pure QM, no localization of anything would ever be possible, translation symmetry could never be broken.

It's because the interaction terms in the Lagrangian are position dependent. --no they are not. A better try is: quantum field theory is "local" i.e. is partial differential equations in position space. In other space it would not be local. So that is something special about the position basis. That is nice, but still does not imply localization will occur via decoherence, see below.

So even if everything were in a momentum eigenstate (and everything is in a superposition of energy-momentum eigenstates) there would be finite probabilities of localized interaction.

--In quantum field theory... the thing is, a momentum eigenstate has got translation invariance -- any translate is still a same-momentum eigenstate. If interaction occurs, this will still yield translation invariant states only. If you dispute this, then: I will take whatever you say is the output state and I will translate it. My translated state is as valid as your untranslated state. Therefore, you had to be wrong in your assertion. QED. So no localization could ever occur, in quantum field theory, if initially momentum eigenstates.

This (in flat spacetime) is a theorem of mathematics. So the physicists who somehow convince themselves that positions being the "pointer basis" is somehow caused by QM, thru mysterious measurement-simulating environmental effects, are full of crap. The true explanation is quantum gravity, I claim via my reasoning.

What about the "direction of time"? QM with measurement features a time direction. QM without features CPT symmetry.

The direction of physical time is determined by expansion of the universe (which allows entropy to increase) - which in a sense is a gravitational effect. Brent --Bunk. If the universe began contracting, entropy still would be increasing.