Abstract
The “special state” understanding of the measurement process is presented, namely there is no “measurement process,” only unitary time evolution. However, in contrast to the many worlds interpretation, there is only one world. How this can be accomplished and how statistical mechanics is changed as a result are also discussed. The focus though is on experimental tests of this theory and the in-principle realization that this can give rise to feasible experimental tests. Those tests rely on the particular feature of having only one world, so that any change in the wave function must have a proximate cause, and it is the detection of that cause that constitutes the test. In a companion article there is further exploration concerning the details of the test. In addition, in the present article, the special state theory is extended theoretically through evidence of the uniqueness of the Cauchy distribution as well as explicit recognition of the role of entanglement.
Highlights
Many interpretations of quantum mechanics exist, all of which agree on experimental results
Since the wave function in Eq (8) is a superposition of the initial wave functions of Eq (7) the dynamics can be separately considered for each, and there is no transfer of z-component of angular momentum at any stage
After giving background on the special state theory I arrived at a potential experimental test
Summary
Many interpretations of quantum mechanics exist, all of which agree on experimental results. Like the Many Worlds Interpretation it allows only unitary time evolution, but unlike that theory, has only one world This suffices to create an experimental test. I discuss quantum aspects, how it is possible to have only pure unitary (time) evolution and have but a single “world.” Following that, Sect. deals with related issues of statistical mechanics This is relevant, since it is clear that to have both pure unitary evolution and only one world something wildly un-intuitive must be happening. This strangeness will be seen to be in the realm of statistical mechanics. In the new work the drop-off of the Cauchy distribution stands out as superior to other options including other long-tailed distributions that lack a second moment
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