On 7/10/2018 3:30 PM, [email protected] wrote:
*More and more, Dirac's claim seems to be an illusion that most everyone has fallen in love with. Consider the example of a vector in a plane decomposed as a superposition of unit vectors in some orthogonal basis, Not an exact analogy to the quantum superposition of course, but worth thinking about. How many decompositions are possible? Well, rotations of the original orthogonal basis give an uncountable number of DIFFERENT decompositions. In fact, the set of NON orthogonal pairs define another uncountable set of bases, each of which results in a DIFFERENT decomposition. So in this example, it makes no sense to say the original vector is in two states simultaneously in some basis, when an uncountable set of other bases exist, each with a different decomposition. In the quantum case, it is natural and convenient to restrict ourselves to the basis in which the system is being measured. But even here, other bases exist which allow other, different, decompositions of the system into superpositions, sometimes countable, sometimes not, depending on the system. *
All true. True of any vector space. SO WHAT?
*So, IMO, Dirac's claim fails, not to mention the fact that his "argument" in favor of simultaneity*
"simultaneity" doesn't appear in Dirac's paragraph. So your rant is unclear.
*of superposition states prior to measurement, is really just an assertion. AG*
Instead of picking on a paragraph of Dirac taken out of context, why don't you go read a modern version. Try Asher Peres, "Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods" pp 50, 116-117
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