Quantum Mechanics - Thought Experiment?

Question

I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject of Quantum Mechanics lately. I'm in no way a physicist but this subject greatly interests me. But with that said, let me just jump into my question.

Let's say a civilization in the FAR future came up with a way to manipulate the probability wave of, say, an electron. I know they would have to do this without the observer in the equation and all that, so I won't begin to speculate how it will be possible. So let's just say they could manipulate this probability wave.

What's going to happen to that electron if they make the wave "read" zero at every possible point, making it so the electron has no probability to exist anywhere in the universe? Now what's going to happen if they "add a probability" to the wave that was "reading" zero?

I know these are probably pointless questions, I'm just curious as to what everyone else thinks might happen in these situations.

Answer 1

I dont think you could zero out the probability wave totally like that. That would essentially mean they were destroying the particle, and that leads to them being able to break such physical laws as conservation of energy, momentum, etc. I dont know if i like that thought :)

I think it much more likely, and feasible, that you could force the collapse of the wavefunction at a certain controlled point, kind of "creating something out of nothing", which is a crude metaphor...

I'll try again: The probability wave exists everywhere throughout spacetime, but normally the probability of finding a certain electron HERE is greater than finding it on the other side of the universe, but that chance still exists.

So, if you can collapse the probability wave in a coherent, controlled fashion that you determine, you could 'pop' particles into existence at will, or with your machine or whatever. I would guess :) And honestly i hope thats beyond anyone anywhere too!

This is all complete speculation of course, and i also am by no means a theoretical physicist either, but i'd like to think i get this stuff :)

hope this helps, or at least stimulates thought!

edit: Cmon Frank, thats the point :) IF you could manipulate the probablities though...thats the thought i went with. It wasnt based in reality in the first place! No offense meant to the asker of course, i thought it was a good question! but you understand what i'm saying :)

Answer 2

'probability wave' is not a useful or meaningful concept. Feynman's 'electron cloud' is just a way of visualizing the probability of finding the electron at a given location. You can't manipulate the probability distribution. You can only manipulate the electron. You can make it disappear by colliding it with a proton to form a neutron via beta decay.

Breaking a car's speedometer won't make the car go 500 MPH.

Answer 3

Well, im not an expert, but yahoo answers compells me to answer.

When you collapse a probability wave to zero, you are giving it a probabilty of 1 in some location in space.

When you identify something's location is space the probability wave instantly collapses to zero everywhere else. But to collapse the wave to zero everywhere you are giving it the probability of 1 at some precise location.

So to bring this back to your question, from what i know you cannot collapse the probabilty everywhere, so your theoretical scenario is impossible.

Answer 4

The only way for a probability wave to be zero everywhere is for the particle to not exist. If it does exist, it has to be somewhere.