Measured distribution of cloud chamber tracks from radioactive decay: a new empirical approach to investigating the quantum measurement problem

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel empirical method analyzing cloud chamber tracks from radioactive decay to explore the quantum measurement problem, suggesting potential modifications to Born's rule with implications for detecting rare events.

Contribution

It introduces a new experimental approach using cloud chamber track distributions to investigate foundational quantum mechanics questions, including possible Born's rule modifications.

Findings

Track start distributions vary with radioactive source

Potential evidence for small-wavefunction Born rule deviations

Implications for detecting rare events like proton decay

Abstract

Using publicly available video of a diffusion cloud chamber with a very small radioactive source, I measure the spatial distribution of where tracks start, and consider possible implications. This is directly relevant to the quantum measurement problem and its possible resolution, and appears never to have been done before. The raw data are relatively uncontrolled, leading to caveats that should guide future, more tailored experiments. Aspects of the results may suggest a modification to Born's rule at very small wavefunction, with possibly profound implications for the detection of extremely rare events such as proton decay, but other explanations are not ruled out. Speculatively, I introduce two candidate small-wavefunction Born rule modifications, a hard cutoff, and an offset model with a stronger underlying physical rationale. Track distributions from decays in cloud chambers represent a previously unappreciated way to probe the foundations of quantum mechanics, and a novel case of wavefunctions with macroscopic signatures.