Study Says Quantum Wavefunction Is a Real Physical Object 373
cekerr writes with this excerpt from an article in Nature
"The wavefunction is a real physical object after all, say researchers. ... the new paper, by a trio of physicists led by Matthew Pusey at Imperial College London, presents a theorem showing that if a quantum wavefunction were purely a statistical tool, then even quantum states that are unconnected across space and time would be able to communicate with each other. As that seems very unlikely to be true, the researchers conclude that the wavefunction must be physically real after all. David Wallace, a philosopher of physics at the University of Oxford, UK, says that the theorem is the most important result in the foundations of quantum mechanics that he has seen in his 15-year professional career. 'This strips away obscurity and shows you can't have an interpretation of a quantum state as probabilistic,' he says."
Oh man, University flashbacks (Score:5, Funny)
One of the stumbling blocks for learning this stuff at school was the people were hung up on the idea of "this-space", "that-space". It was a revelation to me that when they said "probability space" it was only a space in the mathematical sense (ie, something with N dimensions that could be graphed if N were not too large).
The way I saw it, people were prejudiced to believe that these were real spaces, the prejudice being that physics is strange at that level, thus there must be strange bizarre types of space. Nope. They were just things with N numerical characteristics.
Now you're telling me there really are strange spaces? That sucks.
Re:Bring back US jobs! (Score:5, Funny)
Yes yes... Some amazing American innovation done at the ... Imperial college of... London?
They mean London, Arkansas, right?
Weird (Score:5, Funny)
I don't remember covering 'proof by claiming that something is unlikely' in my Physics degree.
Re:Weird (Score:5, Funny)
Did they cover reading the paper instead of a media summary? Because it's a pretty important skill in science.
Re:Why is it that reading this feels like I'm (Score:5, Funny)
Pandering, poorly written and not very funny?
Re:Alternative... (Score:5, Funny)
Sheldon Cooper is going to be pissed.....
Re:Sensible (Score:5, Funny)
My salt and pepper shakers came as a set. They did not, however, come with salt and pepper in them. They were a - wait for it - Empty Set.
Hope I didn't break the maths too much.
Re:Data vs Logic (Score:5, Funny)
Since it is a quantum wave function, couldn't it be both physical and statistical at the same time?
Re:Sensible (Score:4, Funny)
Bertrand Russell walked into a cafe. He asked the waiter for a cup of coffee, with no cream or sugar. The waiter said "I'm sorry, but we're out of cream. Will you take it with no milk or sugar?"