Thread Rating:
  • 2 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Quantum Mechanics Interpretation Has Been Disrupted
#1
A multi-cat experiment has left physicists frustrated as it has produced a new and contradictory theory of reality.

This article throws a wrench into the Schrodinger's Cat theory for explaining our reality. Quantum mechanics explains most of modern physics, but, "The equations often don't point out to the exact outcome of what's being measured", according to Physicists Daniela Frauchiger and Renato Renner of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Quote:It might be the most famous thought experiment in the world. A cat in a box could either be alive or dead -- and until that box was opened, one had to theorize that it could be both. Physicist Erwin Schrodinger described the scenario, and it became one of the basic explanations for quantum theory. 

Now, two physicists are challenging that riddle with their own version of the paradox. They replace the kitty with physicists conducting experiments. The result of their new theory has stumped other physicists. 

The new "multiplayer" version of a classic is unusual. It shows that if current interpretations of quantum mechanics hold true, then different experimenters can get opposing results about the physicists in the box. In short, it's quantum theory contradicting itself.

[Image: schrodinger_resize_md.jpg]

Quote:Physicists Daniela Frauchiger and Renato Renner of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, were the first to pose the argument online in spring of 2016. And it's been debated hotly ever since. 

Quantum objects like electrons live in clouds, not in specific points. This is why Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg created the Copenhagen interpretation. In summary, it states that the act of observing a quantum system makes the wave-like cloud of electrons collapse to a single data point.

However, Frauchiger and Renner now are stating that through their reasoning, the basic Copenhagen picture isn't consistent. 

Looking into the box
Schrodinger's cat has gotten several upgrades throughout the years. Hungarian physicist Eugene Wigner proposed a version involving a physicist who lived in the box and had a measuring device for determining one of two options. 

And it's this version of the 'box' that Frauchiger and Renner are upgrading. In this version, they have two Wigners doing an experiment on their friend who they keep in the box.

One friend (Anna) tosses a coin and (because she's luckily a physicist) makes a quantum message to send to her friend Brad. Brad (who is also a physicist) can pick up Anna's message and understand the result of the coin toss. 

The problems start when the Wigners open their boxes to check on their friends. According to Renner, when they open their boxes, they should conclude with certainty where the coin landed in the toss.

However, their conclusions are inconsistent. “One says, ‘I’m sure it’s tails,’ and the other one says, ‘I’m sure it’s heads,’” Renner told Nature. The pair of Swiss physicists have managed to considerably upset modern physicists in the process of sharing their new deliberations.

“Some get emotional,” Renner said. And different researchers tend to draw different conclusions. “Most people claim that the experiment shows that their interpretation is the only one that is correct.”


This experiment could explain the Mandela Effect so many experience today, and it opens new doors into the question of what "reality" truly is.

Wrap your brain around that and get back to me.   minusculebiggrin
#2
WOW I need to think about this, im still working on Schrödingers cat, if the cat has to go to the loo does it leave the box or do it in the box, so many questions
#3
Any interaction by external consciousness effects a required outcome.

That's the dilemma that awaits us in the future, the realisation that we're -not only insignificant as an
individual or collective, the stuff some call 'magic' is bound in everything and holds no favour to the
human species.

The experimental theory means little in its immediate self, the 'quantum-coin' can be heads, tails or neither.
The problem that confounds them is that the outcome isn't relevant to their findings due to the belief that
there's no true outcome and they know the observed result is impaired by their observation!

What's more alarming is the possibility that there's no coin, no box and no physicists in the first place!
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe. 
#4
Thanks for that explanation @"BIAD". 

Makes sense.   mediumcool
#5
This brings to mind the question, does reality exist if your not looking at it ? You can read about it here  source
#6
(01-16-2019, 04:47 PM)Wallfire Wrote: This brings to mind the question, does reality exist if your not looking at it ? You can read about it here  source

When I was very young, probably just around 4 or 5, I had the thought that nothing I was seeing was real, it was all in my mind.
Now, where on earth would a child that young get such an idea? 
A knowing from "out there" I brought with me perhaps?

But then, if that is true, are we actually communicating on this board, or is it all in my mind?   minusculethinking
#7
(01-16-2019, 05:02 PM)Mystic Wanderer Wrote:
(01-16-2019, 04:47 PM)Wallfire Wrote: This brings to mind the question, does reality exist if your not looking at it ? You can read about it here  source

When I was very young, probably just around 4 or 5, I had the thought that nothing I was seeing was real, it was all in my mind.
Now, where on earth would a child that young get such an idea? 
A knowing from "out there" I brought with me perhaps?

But then, if that is true, are we actually communicating on this board, or is it all in my mind?   minusculethinking

If you stop thinking about yourself do you stop existing ????  I think there are times we get flashes of understanding, thats when we sense strange things around us
#8
I'm just upset that they want to put physicists in boxes. However, I pack a knife everywhere I go, so I can cut my way out when they come to box me, and therefore render their experiment meaningless. That appears to be a factor they have not accounted for.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.

Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’


#9
(01-16-2019, 07:24 PM)Ninurta Wrote: I'm just upset that they want to put physicists in boxes. However, I pack a knife everywhere I go, so I can cut my way out when they come to box me, and therefore render their experiment meaningless. That appears to be a factor they have not accounted for.


This is why the God Of Quantum Mechanics stopped sending you a Christmas card.
smallcrackingup
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe. 


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)