Dan said:
> The time evolution of those states describes the particle with time.
> When the particle is observed, the superposition collapses and only
> one state exists. But, between observations, the particle is in a
> superposition of states.
This is slightly misleading. Saying that a particle is "in a
superposition of states" supposes a choice of an observable (I assume
that we're only talking about observables whose eigenstates form a
basis for the Hilbert space). With one choice of observable then the
basis vectors in the Hilbert space might be such that the state of the
system is aligned with one of them, but you might just as well have
picked a non-commuting observable and then you'd find the state was in
a superposition. Being "in a superposition" isn't an absolute property
of the system; and the Heisenberg uncertainty results are a direct
consequence of this. For example, if the system is in an eigenstate of
position then it will be in a superposition of momentum eigenstates and
vice versa.
As for all the philosophical stuff: I don't think I'm qualified to
comment on that but I'm having fun reading it.
Rich
GCU Is This Sci.Physics.Research?
