What is it about?
This article provides evidence that quantum probability has a stochastic nature. This evidence is based on the number of electrons that need to be sent through a two slit interferometer to gain a clear pattern of self-interference, which when compared with the number that would be expected to be sufficient in order for the position probability distribution of the self-interference wavefunction to take clear shape suggests that there is more variability present than that described by the formulation of quantum mechanics, which implies the presence of an underlying and as yet unrecognized physical process. The article builds on a previous article which examined whether there could be an archetypical variable behind quantum probability that provides a mathematical foundation that observes both quantum and classic probability. The properties that would need to be satisfied for this to be the case were identified, and a generic hidden variable that satisfies them was found that would be present everywhere, transforming into a process-specific variable wherever a quantum process is active. Uncovering this variable confirmed the possibility that there is a stochastic archetype of quantum probability.
Featured Image
Photo by FLY:D on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The aim of this article is to summarize the previous article and then provide practical experimental context for it by reporting work done since then in examining the quantum probability distribution in volved in and the results of the famous 1989 experiment by Tonomura and colleagues that demonstrated the self-interference of electrons sent one by one through a two-slit interferometer, and by reporting the evidence found from this examination that supports the hypothesis of the previous article.
Perspectives
The central question emerging from this examination is why does it take as many as 140,000 electron emissions through a two-slit interferometer to gain a relatively clear picture of the self-interference effect when 5000 or so emissions should be sufficient? It is suggested that the answer to this question is that the nature of probability in quantum mechanics is not solely determined by the normalized squared amplitude of the wavefunction of a quantum mechanical process, but rather originates from a random variable whose mean equals that deterministic squared amplitude. The resulting variability around the mean would lead to a much larger number than the otherwise sufficient 5000 or so electron emissions to be necessary for a relatively clear picture to form, as happened in the Tonomura experiment, and for the average of the realizations of the squared amplitude variable at a point and time (x, t) to converge to the deterministic squared amplitude as it is formulated in the causal interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Mr Tim C Jenkins
Independent Researcher
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Report of Evidence That Quantum Probability Is Itself Stochastic, Advances in Theoretical & Computational Physics, June 2022, Opast Group LLC,
DOI: 10.33140/atcp.05.03.12.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
