Abstract
Abstract Using publicly available video of a diffusion cloud chamber with a very small radioactive source, I measure the spatial distribution of where tracks start and consider possible implications. This is directly relevant to the quantum measurement problem and its possible resolution, and it appears never to have been done before. The raw data are relatively uncontrolled, leading to caveats that should guide future, more tailored experiments. Aspects of the results may suggest a modification to Born’s rule at very small wave function, with possibly profound implications for the detection of extremely rare events such as proton decay, but other explanations are not ruled out. Speculatively, I introduce two candidate small-wavefunction Born rule modifications: a hard cutoff and an offset model with a stronger underlying physical rationale. Track distributions from decays in cloud chambers represent a previously unappreciated way to probe the foundations of quantum mechanics and a novel case of wave functions with macroscopic signatures.
Highlights
In a recent article [2], I explored the processes by which a cloud chamber detects single charged particles emitted by the simplest radioactive decays
I identified a mechanism to explain the origination of cloud chamber tracks without appeal to random projections and derived an emergent position-space Born rule that describes the distribution in space and time of tracks’ starting points
I have conducted a search on the Internet for videos of cloud-chamber tracks induced by radioactive decay and have measured a track distribution myself in one video to compare with a previous study [2]
Summary
Measurement occupies a privileged role in the conventional formulation of quantum theory. It may be premature to draw firm conclusions from comparison between theory and measurement, but aspects of the results may suggest a modification of the position-space Born rule at extremely small wave function, other more mundane candidate mechanisms cannot be ruled out Such a Born rule modification could have profound implications for the detection of extremely rare processes such as proton decay. Issues include uncontrolled temperature and vapor density in the cloud chamber, uncalibrated placement of the video camera, suboptimal and varying placement of the illumination source, and indeterminate thermal characteristics of the sample’s mounting fixture These caveats are all good justifications for building an apparatus tailored to the purpose at hand, instrumented to reveal and diagnose deviations between measurement and theory.
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