Interrupted fluorescence, quantum jumps, and wave-function collapse

1988 ◽  
Vol 37 (11) ◽  
pp. 4303-4308 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. T. Pegg ◽  
P. L. Knight
2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (8) ◽  
pp. 082103
Author(s):  
Charles Wesley Cowan ◽  
Roderich Tumulka

2003 ◽  
Vol 308 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 323-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spencer R. Klein ◽  
Joakim Nystrand

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 129-153
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Boyd

In Quantum ElectroDynamics (QED) the propagator is a function that describes the probability amplitude of a particle going from point A to B. It summarizes the many paths of Feynman’s path integral approach. We propose a reverse propagator (R-propagator) that, prior to the particle’s emission, summarizes every possible path from B to A. Wave function collapse occurs at point A when the particle randomly chooses one and only one of many incident paths to follow backwards with a probability of one, so it inevitably strikes detector B. The propagator and R-propagator both calculate the same probability amplitude. The R-propagator has an advantage over the propagator because it solves a contradiction inside QED, namely QED says a particle must take EVERY path from A to B. With our model the particle only takes one path. The R-propagator had already taken every path into account. We propose that this tiny, infinitesimal change from propagator to R-propagator would vastly simplify the mathematics of Nature. Many experiments that currently describe the quantum world as weird, change their meaning and no longer say that. The quantum world looks and acts like the classical world of everyday experience.


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