Mechanism of wavefunction collapse in measurements of separated quantum subsystems

TL;DR

This work proposes a mechanism explaining how superpositions collapse during measurements of separated entangled quantum subsystems, emphasizing the role of a randomly installed phase in determining measurement outcomes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism involving a 'contextual' phase that causes collapse, advancing the understanding of quantum measurement processes.

Findings

The phase locks entangled states and influences measurement outcomes.

Measurement outcomes are determined by a randomly installed phase.

Results support a more solidified theory of quantum superposition measurement.

Abstract

The specific advance of this work is to propose a mechanism by which superpositions collapse during measurement of the separated subsystems of entangled quantum states. It is shown how the phase that locks together entangled states plays a special role in the measurement of isolated subsystems. This `contextual' phase is installed randomly into the entangled state, and decides the measurement outcomes for the subsystems by directing the collapse of each superposition to a particular classical outcome when a subsystem is measured. The measuring apparatus thus obtains a classical read-out of the quantum correlations embedded in an entangled state. More broadly, these results solidify the theory of measurement of quantum superpositions.