A Symmetrical Interpretation of the Klein-Gordon Equation
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A Symmetrical Interpretation of the Klein-Gordon Equation Michael B. Heaney
Received: 29 November 2012 / Accepted: 21 March 2013 / Published online: 3 April 2013 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract This paper presents a new Symmetrical Interpretation (SI) of relativistic quantum mechanics which postulates: quantum mechanics is a theory about complete experiments, not particles; a complete experiment is maximally described by a complex transition amplitude density; and this transition amplitude density never collapses. This SI is compared to the Copenhagen Interpretation (CI) for the analysis of Einstein’s bubble experiment. This SI makes several experimentally testable predictions that differ from the CI, solves one part of the measurement problem, resolves some inconsistencies of the CI, and gives intuitive explanations of some previously mysterious quantum effects. Keywords Foundations of quantum mechanics · Foundations of relativistic quantum mechanics · Klein-Gordon equation · Quantum interpretation · Symmetrical interpretation · Time-symmetric interpretation · Copenhagen interpretation · Measurement problem · Quantum mechanics axioms · Quantum mechanics postulates · Problem of time · Zitterbewegung · Block universe · Einsteins bubble · Retrocausality · Causality · Delayed choice · Interaction free · Renninger · Teleportation · Role of observer · Advanced wavefunction · Two-state vector formalism · TSVF · Wavefunction collapse · Wave function collapse 1 Introduction At the fifth Solvay Congress in 1927, Einstein presented a thought experiment, later known as Einstein’s bubble experiment, to illustrate what he saw as a flaw in the Copenhagen Interpretation (CI) of quantum mechanics [1]. In his thought experiment, a single particle is released from a source, evolves freely for a time, then is M.B. Heaney () 3182 Stelling Drive, Palo Alto, CA 94303, USA e-mail: [email protected]
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Found Phys (2013) 43:733–746
captured by a detector some distance from the source. The particle is known to be localized at the source immediately before release, as shown in Fig. 1(a). The CI says that, after release, the particle’s probability density evolves continuously and deterministically into a progressively more delocalized distribution, up until immediately before capture, as shown in Figs. 1(b) and 1(c). Immediately after capture, the particle is known to be localized at the detector, as shown in Fig. 1(d). The CI says that, upon measurement at the detector, the probability density shown in Fig. 1(c) undergoes an instantaneous (in all inertial reference frames), indeterministic, and time-asymmetric collapse into the different probability density shown in Fig. 1(d). Einstein’s bubble pops. Einstein believed this instantaneous collapse was unphysical, implying the CI was an incomplete theory. The still unresolved question of how (or if) collapse occurs is one part of the measurement problem of the CI [2]. Einstein suggested that some additional mechanism, not described by the CI, was needed to make
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