How Or Why Does A Quantum Wave Function Collapse?

Question

What influence does an observer have?

Please explain in detail; I'm a bit confused here...

Answer 1

Wave functions are very prude...

Answer 2

The idea that a conscious observer plays a role in quantum wave function collapse has already been passed over by more recently developed "quantum decoherence" theories, so we can scratch that off our list, unless you're an New Ager that wants to believe that consciousness creates reality. However, any expereimental setup designed to collect information about certain things about an object in a quantum state will cause its quantum state to shift, or "collapse", upon success in collecting that information. For example, there's a type of experiment called "quantum eraser" experiments, where, say, quantum intereference is produced, and yet if anything is done to gain additional information about the sytem, the interference disappears. Strangely enough, if one "destroys" that additional information being gained, the interference reappears! There seems to be some kind of a profound underlying "law of limited knowledge" that one can know about a given system: Any effort to gain additional information about it will result in a corresponding LOSS of information about it somewhere else.

Addendum: misterchickie's answer is exactly what I was talking about, the older "consciousness creates reality" interpretations now being made obsolete by quantum decoherence theories. But it's still a favorite among New Agers and mystics.

Answer 3

There are a few different interpretations for what it means. An "interpretation" in this context is something entirely extraneous to a theory, incapable of being proved or disproved, but nonetheless somehow necessary for the human mind to make sense of it all. You can study Quantum Mechanics for years and never need to use the term "wave function collapse".

Answer 4

Ok kiddo , this is as simple as it gets :

this is a classic example - We'll call it "Cat in a Box".
I got this cat in a box.....but,
there's a gas bomb in there too...juuuust big enough to kill the cat and be totally silent.

remember -- to know the condition of the cat at any moment in time , you must look.

You , the observer , determine what reality IS ...by observing it.
Untill you open that lid , anything can be possible...could be alive...could be dead 10 minutes ago...ANYTHING....
But the moment you open that lid...BAM...
only ONE of those possibilities IS ..!
The infinite possibilities collapse into one reality.


unfortunately, Heisenberg tells us that whatever can happen, DOES happen .....but that's for another time.....



You create the universe around you.

Ommmmmmm.......



My addendum :
last i checked , decoherence theory is a direct result of Schrödinger 's work....cat and all.
And the point of the cat is NOT that consciousness creates reality , it's that the observer and the observed are part of the same system.....lighten up!!
and the oohm bit ...that's called sarcasm.
i use it .
sometimes....

Answer 5

Confused? No kidding?

Might that be because there can be no satisfying answer without the ability to perceive and fully comprehend 11 or so spacial dimensions?

I suspect that asking how and why they collapse is being redundant.

The observer is just as much a quantum wave function as anything else. As we depart this 3 dimensional existence at death, the wave that sustained our consciousness collapses.

Answer 6

In certain interpretations of quantum mechanics, wave function collapse is one of two processes by which quantum systems apparently evolve according to the laws of quantum mechanics. It is also called collapse of the state vector or reduction of the wave packet. The reality of wave function collapse has always been debated, i.e., whether it is a fundamental physical phenomenon in its own right (which may yet emerge from a theory of everything) or just an epiphenomenon of another process, such as quantum decoherence. In recent decades the quantum decoherence view has gained popularity.

We describe an experimental test of whether particle decay causes wave function collapse. The test uses interference between two well separated, but coherent, sources of vector mesons. The short-lived mesons decay before their wave functions can overlap, so any interference must involve identical final states. Unlike previous tests of nonlocality, the interference involves continuous variables, momentum and position. Interference can only occur if the wave function retains amplitudes for all possible decays. The interference can be studied through the transverse momentum spectrum of the reconstructed mesons.
for example-
Moving highly-charged ions carry strong electromagnetic fields that act as a field of photons. In collisions at large impact parameters, hadronic interactions are not possible, and the ions interact through photon-ion and photon-photon collisions known as it ultra-peripheral collisions (UPC). Hadron colliders like the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produce photonuclear and two-photon interactions at luminosities and energies beyond that accessible elsewhere; the LHC will reach a γ p energy ten times that of the Hadron-Electron Ring Accelerator (HERA). Reactions as diverse as the production of anti-hydrogen, photoproduction of the ρ0, transmutation of lead into bismuth and excitation of collective nuclear resonances have already been studied. At the LHC, UPCs can study many types of `new physics.'

Answer 7

Try

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_function_collapse

it's as simple as it's going to get. . .

Answer 8

Get Schrodinger drunk and trip him. ;)