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Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

Quantum Reality
The macroscopic world
of our classical intuition
emerges from
the microscopic world
of quantum mechanics

Things on a very small scale


behave like nothing that
you have any direct experience about.

They do not behave like clouds,


or billiard balls, or weights on springs,
or like anything that you have ever seen.

—Richard Feynman

A series of thought experiments


introduce many of the major ideas
of quantum physics

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

Beam Splitter (BS)


Light falls on a half-silvered mirror
Half is transmitted, half is reflected

At high intensity,
light behaves like an electromagnetic wave

Intensity is proportional to amplitude squared

BS

light
source 2
I! A

What happens if we
“turn down the light”?

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

Wave-Particle Duality
At low intensity,
the graininess of light becomes apparent:
photons, individual particles of light, are
detected by photo multipliers (PMTs)

PMT
yes
no
smoked yes
2
glass P! A yes
no
no
Probability yes

Photons are transmitted or reflected


with probability 1/2

More generally,
the probability of detecting a photon is proportional to
the square of the electric field amplitude

These probabilities are thought to be


ontological rather than epistemological

Apparently, God does play dice with the universe

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

Interferometer
Recombine the light
using two mirrors and another beam splitter

At high intensity,
waves interfere
constructively rightward
and destructively upward

dark
mirror

bright

mirror

I! A
2

What happens if we
“turn down the light”?

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

Superposition
At low intensity, light is so faint that
there is only one photon in the interferometer
at any one time

At first BS, photon neither reflected or transmitted!

It somehow interacts with the entire system,


evolving into a superposition of both possibilities
until it is observed/measured by PMTs

It somehow interferes with itself

PMT
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

A superposition is a strange kind of


complex-number weighted
coexistence of alternatives
(possibilities, potentialities)

photon = a up + b right
Just as
the square of the electric field amplitude
corresponds to the probability
of detecting a photon,

in the superposition,
the absolute square of the weights
correspond to the probabilities
of measuring the alternatives:

P(up ) = a 2
P(right ) = b 2

Complex numbers have


real and imaginary parts:

z = 3 + 2i, i = "1
z = 32 + 2 2 = 13
2

So, imaginary numbers are fundamental


to our description of reality!

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

Two Types of
Quantum Evolution
Schrödinger
Deterministic and continuous
evolution of quantum-level
complex-weighted superpositions
when system not observed/measured:

photon
S photon # = a up + b right

Measurement
Probabilistic and discontinuous
collapse of a superposition to classical
probability-weighted alternatives
when system is observed/measured:

$& up , P = a 2
photon#
M %
&' right , P = b 2

Potentialities/possibilities evolve causally


until an observation realizes/actualizes one

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

Which Path?
Can observe the path taken by the photon
by measuring the recoil of a “floating” mirror

But this measurement


collapses the superposition,
destroying the interference,
allowing the photon to go
rightward or upward

PMT
yes
no
yes
yes
no
no
yes

measure
recoil

This experiment
elicits the particle nature of light,
while the previous experiment with the fixed mirrors
elicits the wave nature of light

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

The Elitzur-Vaidman
Bomb Testing Problem
Consider a design of bombs
whose detonators are so sensitive
even slightest touch will explode them

Unfortunately,
for some fraction of the manufactured bombs
the detonators are jammed
and the bombs are duds

Classically,
there is no way to identify good bombs
without exploding them

BANG!

This one is a dud This one is (uh, was) good

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

What is impossible in classical physics


is possible in quantum physics!
Use the silvered bomb detonator
as one of the mirrors in our interferometer

PMT
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

The superposition doesn’t collapse until


it is observed/measured by the PMTs

In particular,
it doesn’t collapse due to the recoil of the detonator
—the detonator must be jammed!

This bomb is a dud

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

PMT
yes
yes
no

The detonator would have recoiled


(and the bomb would have exploded)
if the photon had reflected off it

The mere possibility


of the detonator recoiling
has collapsed the superposition
and destroyed the interference
thereby allowing the photon to go
rightward or upward

This bomb is good — and undetonated!

(The importance of such null measurements


has been verified experimentally

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

PMT
no

BANG!

This bomb was good and is detonated

So, we do destroy some of the good bombs,


but we positively identify the others
without detonating them

(A different procedure can be employed


to reduce the waste to effectively zero)

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

What is a Measurement?
Consider a variation on the (in)famous
Schrödinger Cat Experiment
wherein a (good) bomb amplifies a
microscopic event to macroscopic proportions

?
Without measurement,
system evolves into superpositions of…

transmitted and reflected photon


+ exploded and unexploded bomb
+ dead and live observer

Bu we don’t observe superpositions


of life and dead people!

So, to collapse the superposition,


a measurement must occur at
the beam splitter or the bomb or the observer …

But ultimately aren’t all of these quantum systems?


Where in the chain do we cross the micro-macro threshold?

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

Does Consciousness
Collapse Superpositions?
Physicists like
Eugene Wigner and Henry Stapp
have suggested that the

Mystery of Consciousness

is connected to the

Mystery of Measurement
in Quantum Physics*

Physics seems
causally closed
except during the non-deterministic
collapse of quantum superpositions

Perhaps this is an opening for free will


to the enter the universe…

*Perhaps due to a “Law of Minimization of Mysteries”?

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

Alternative Interpretations
There exist alternative interpretations
of quantum physics
that attempt to eliminate
some of the more bizarre aspects
of the standard “Copenhagen” interpretation,
especially the measurement problem:

Everett’s
Many Worlds/Histories Interpretation

the de Broglie-Bohm
Pilot Wave Interpretation

Cramer’s
Transactional Interpretation

Evolved Copenhagen Interpretations


involving Decoherence

However,
none of these interpretations
restore classical physics
or classical intuition

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster


Quantum Reality John Lindner, Fall 2007

References
Roger Penrose
Shadows of the Mind:
A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness
(Oxford University Press, 1994)

Johnjoe McFadden
Quantum Evolution
(W. W. Norton & Company, 2001)

FYS-18: Belief in God in an Age of Science The College of Wooster

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