Absorbers in the Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the role of absorbers in the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics, addressing paradoxes related to advanced causation and demonstrating the interpretation's consistency with the block-universe view.

Contribution

It clarifies the role of absorbers in the transactional interpretation and resolves paradoxes without requiring a hierarchy of transactions.

Findings

Advanced causation does not lead to paradoxes when properly analyzed.

The transactional interpretation remains consistent with the block-universe model.

Analysis of quantum liar experiments supports the interpretation's validity.

Abstract

The transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics, following the time-symmetric formulation of electrodynamics, uses retarded and advanced solutions of the Schrodinger equation and its complex conjugate to understand quantum phenomena by means of transactions. A transaction occurs between an emitter and a specific absorber when the emitter has received advanced waves from all possible absorbers. Advanced causation always raises the specter of paradoxes, and it must be addressed carefully. In particular, different devices involving contingent absorbers or various types of interaction-free measurements have been proposed as threatening the original version of the transactional interpretation. These proposals will be analyzed by examining in each case the configuration of absorbers and, in the special case of the so-called quantum liar experiment, by carefully following the development of retarded and advanced waves through the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. We will show that there is no need to resort to the hierarchy of transactions that some have proposed, and will argue that the transactional interpretation is consistent with the block-universe picture of time.