Diese verdammte quantenspringerei
Anthony Sudbery

TL;DR
The paper critiques the standard quantum mechanics formalism for inadequately describing quantum jumps during observation, proposing a modified postulate that distinguishes between external and internal descriptions to better account for observed phenomena.
Contribution
It introduces a new postulate based on Bell's suggestion that improves the formalism's ability to describe quantum jumps during observation.
Findings
Correctly describes quantum jumps in unstable systems
Reconciles observed jumps with formalism without measurement assumptions
Provides a modified framework consistent with experiments
Abstract
It is argued that the conventional formulation of quantum mechanics is inadequate: the usual interpretation of the mathematical formalism in terms of the results of measurements cannot be applied to situations in which discontinuous transitions ("quantum jumps) are observed as they happen, since nothing that can be called a measurement happens at the moment of observation. Attempts to force such observations into the standard mould lead to absurd results: "a watched pot never boils". Experiments show both that this result is correct when the experiment does indeed consist of a series of measurements, and that it is not when the experiment consists of a period of observation: quantum jumps do happen. The possibilities for improving the formalism by incorporating transitions in the basic postulates are reviewed, and a satisfactory postulate is obtained by modifying a suggestion of Bell's.…
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Taxonomy
TopicsQuantum Mechanics and Applications · Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics · Quantum Information and Cryptography
