Quantum Measurement at the Mimit? Idealization, Emergence, and Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Project Summary The intellectual merit of this proposal is to argue for a new solution to the measurementproblem (MP): a solution under the idealization of macroscopic limit (ML). MP is one of the mainproblems, if not the problem, at the foundations of physics. Because this is the last, and the mostimportant, part of my multi-stage effort that in the past six or so years has produced works on thenature of idealization and approximation, of model-building, of thermodynamic limit, of phasetransitions and critical phenomena, of laws of nature, and of classical and quantum spontaneoussymmetry breaking (SSB), some of which are supported by a previous NSF grant (No. SES-9910889), its results, apart from their own merit, will validate and improve on results in those areas.This final project may be seen as a test and showcase of my previous contributions to philosophy ofscience. The difficulty of MP centers on an apparent contradiction between what theorieshypothesize happens at the micro-level and what happens at the macro-level. All existing attempts tosolve the problem make what seems to be an inescapable assumption that all systems involved are offinite number of degrees of freedom (or finite). But finite quantum systems harbor ineliminatablesuperpositional effects, just as all finite thermo-systems harbor fluctuations; and such effects seem tomake a rigorous solution of MP impossible. I propose that we drop the assumption. There is asound and rigorous mathematical way (the algebraic approach) to imagine, with properly taken limits,that the systems involved are of infinite number of degrees of freedom (or infinite). Moreover, SSBis only possible under ML, and it can be used to replace the notion of the 'collapse' of wave functionsin the orthodox formulation. The broader impacts of this project are many-fold. Given its nature,this project will mainly produce research papers (and possibly a monograph) and lectures or talks toaudiences of both experts and general public interested in philosophy and physics. Because theproject tackles MP, the arguably single most important problems in the foundations of physics, thereverberation of its results is far-reaching. Historians of quantum physics and of the revolution ofmodern physics will find the spirit of the proposed solution closer to the views of the founders ofquantum physics (Bohr et al and the Copenhagen school). Researchers interested in the symbioticrelationships between disciplines of science will find it interesting to see how a recalcitrant orthodoxposition in quantum physics -- the Hilbert-space approach -- is unseated (if I am right) by results insolid state physics; or how the 'foundation' of quantum physics is shaken by models in solid state (amuch less fundamental and hence neglected area in foundational studies). A solution to MP thatchallenges the prevailing bias in the conception of quantum physics should open the door for newpossibilities in the field, which should get the attention of theoretical physicists and mathematicians.Every effort will be made to incorporate the results into my teaching, to give talks at the communitycollege at Jacksonville and at nearby universities of north and central Florida, as well as atprofessional meetings and colloquia here and abroad.