Theoretical Physicist: Quantum Theory Must be Replaced

Recently, we ran a piece including the views of well-known science writer John Horgan who talked about a bizarre element of quantum physics confirmed by recent experiments– that it appears as if there´s no knowledge apart from observers’ minds.

Theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder is decidedly not happy with that approach:
” Physicists have revealed that objective reality does not exist. This is allegedly an insight derived from quantum mechanics. And not just this, it’s been experimentally confirmed. Really? How do you prove that reality does not exist? Has it truly been done? And do we have to stop stating “really” now? That is what we’ll talk about today.

Many of you have asked me to comment on those headlines claiming that reality does not exist. It’s a case in which physicists have outdone themselves in the attempt to make linear algebra sound mysterious. The result is patently absurd.”

” Hossenfelder acknowledges the experiments that Horgan discusses, starting with Eugene Wigner’s idea experiment, “Wigner’s Friend,” which was confirmed in the laboratories (with photons as opposed to friends):.

Suppose Wigner’s friend Alice is in a lab and does an experiment like the one we just discussed. Wigner waits outside the door. Inside the laboratory, the particle hits the screen with 50% probability left or right. When Alice measures the particle, the wave function collapses, and it is either left or right. She after then opens the door and tells Wigner what she has measured.

Quantum theory

But how would Wigner describe the experiment? When his friend informs him, he only finds out whether the particle went left or right. So, according to quantum mechanics, Wigner needs to assume that Alice is in a superposition of 2 states before he knows what’s occurred. One in which the particle went left, and she knows it went left. And one in which it went right, and she understands it went right.

The issue is now that, according to Alice, the outcome of her measurement never was in a superposition, whereas for Wigner, it was. So they disagree on what happened. Reality seems to be subjective.”.

In Hossenfelder’s sight, this should not be a big problem because, in a real experiment, the measurement occurs when Alice measures the particle hitting the screen. There is no superposition.
However, here is the problem that she goes on to identify:.
” Because in the common interpretation of quantum mechanics, the update of the wave function isn’t a physical process. It’s simply a mathematical update of your knowledge, which you do after you have learned something recently about the system. It does not come with any physical change. And if Alice did not physically change anything then, according to Wigner, she must indeed herself have been in a superposition.”.

She is not delighted with the result of the experiments, offering, “If you claim that a single photon is an observer who makes a measurement, that’s not simply a fanciful interpretation; that is nonsense.” She thinks that a new concept of quantum mechanics is needed:.

Exciting findings

” So, to sum up, no one has proved that reality does not exist, and no experiment has confirmed this. What these headlines tell you rather is that physicists slowly come to observe that quantum mechanics is internally inconsistent and also must be replaced with a better concept, one that describes what physically happens in a measurement. And when they find that concept, that will be the breakthrough of the century.”.

Now, the exciting thing is that Hossenfelder is comfortable with how strange classical particle physics can be. Take neutrinos, for instance”.

” First, they are the just particles that interact only with the weak nuclear force. All the other particles we understand either interact with the electromagnetic force or the strong nuclear force or both. And the weak nuclear force is weak. This is why neutrinos rarely interact with anything at all. They mostly simply pass through matter without leaving a trace. This is why they are always called “ghostly.” While you have listened to this sentence, about 10 to the fifteen neutrinos have passed through you.

Understanding neutrinos

This is not the only reason neutrinos are weird. What’s even stranger is that the 3 types of neutrino-flavors blend into each other. That means, if you start with, state, only electron-neutrinos, they will convert into muon-neutrinos as they travel. And then, they will convert back into electron neutrinos. So, depending on what distance from one source you make a measurement, you’ll get more electron neutrinos or more muon neutrinos. Crazy! However, it’s true.”.
The neutrinos’ overall behavior, she informs us, is inconsistent with the Standard Model of physics. However, that’s a “crazy” situation she finds easier to accept.

We might conclude that the universe is one stranger place than we have sometimes been led to suspect, which the amount and type of strangeness each of us can tolerate depend, to some extent, on prior commitments. However, the universe is what it is anyway.

Read the original article on Mind Matters.

Related “Scientists State The Laws of Physics May Be Changing”