Relativity with Respect to Measurement: Collapse and Quantum Events from Fock to Cramer

Abstract

Some observations are presented starting with the well-known article by Vladimir Fock "Quantum Physics and Philosophical Problems", published in 1971. In this article, which summarizes for Western readers a long and complicated reflection of the foundations of quantum mechanics (QM), Fock illustrates his "minimal" interpretation of this theory. By minimal, we mean that it only uses concepts related to the operational aspects of the measurement procedures, avoiding any mention of definite quantum ontologies (Bell's beables). It is argued that, by taking into account the time reversal invariance of the microscopic processes and introducing the notion of irreversibility in an appropriate manner, Fock's description becomes an anticipation of the "transaction" notion introduced by Cramer a decade later. So, the concept of "collapse" does retain the features of a QM "freak" postulate to become a new way to look at the elementary quantum processes.

Universal Constants as Manifestations of Relativity

“…However, it does not provide the solution (and even hints of it) of some other problems of QM, e.g., related to the reduction of the wavepacket. Since the main part of the works on the interpretation of the QM deals with exactly these problems, PeRelOM did not draw much attention of the quantum-mechanical community (although some authors established a connection between PeRelOM and transactional interpretation that was proposed by Kramer in the 1986 [14]).…”

Quantum Mechanics Interpretation on Planck Scale

“…The idea of metric fluctuations has been repeated several times [67], and some recent results seem to indicate a) that the temporal inversion is not, as is believed, in contrast with the CPT theorem and b) that negative masses are an necessary ingredient in the quantum phase of the Universe (de Sitter model) [68,69,70]. Finally, the time reversal plays a key role in many QM readings today [71].…”

Event-Based Quantum Mechanics: A Context for the Emergence of Classical Information

“…Several non-local or contextual 'ε-machines' can be imagined. For example, in [25,26] the Born rule is exactly reproduced by the selection of a specific 'loop' associated with a specific 'transaction'. However, these aspects are beyond the scope of this paper and we leave them open.…”

“…Let S be one of these components and E the complex consisting of the remaining components. Let us consider a specific interaction between S and the individual elements of E such that the total amplitude of S + E at time t is: |ψ = α|s 1 |e 1 + β|s 2 |e 2 (25) For simplicity, we have considered only two (orthogonal) basis amplitudes s 1 and s 2 of S and two (not necessarily orthogonal) amplitudes e 1 and e 2 of E. Now consider the trace of |ψ ψ| on the states of E; it will contain terms of interference proportional to the real part of the scalar product of the two states of E. If these ones are orthogonal, the interference disappears, whereas in the general case it will be attenuated. Because S is randomly chosen among the elementary components of the macroscopic system, and this random choice determines the components of E, we have that the possible existence of an interaction of this type between S and E, independent on this choice, leads to a quantum decoherence between the elementary components of the system.…”