Oil droplets guided by pilot waves do not give rise to double-slit interference

Post by m12k » Fri, Oct 12, 2018, 11:42 AM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #56

m12k wrote: post #53

I'm a bit sad that they couldn't reproduce the double slit interference pattern. I'm still holding out hope that we'll eventually develop a model of reality where the apparent indeterminism of quantum mechanics can be explained by currently unobservable interactions in higher dimensional space (such as the space described here: https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-discover-geometry-... )

What you're describing has been desired by many (including Einstein). However, John Bell more or less proved it impossible[0] in a landmark, sweepingly general result. He would have won a Nobel for it if he had lived long enough. On the other hand, if you are willing to accept superluminal messages and also unobservable mechanics, there is always the pilot wave interpretation[1]. The fluid analogy is disappointing to…

Post by eggie » Fri, Oct 12, 2018, 11:49 AM UTC

twtw wrote: post #58

Bohm's pilot wave theory is interesting to me not because it is so intuitive or tasteful or something, but because it works without sacrificing realism, and thus demonstrates that the Cophenhagen interpretation (neither local nor real) claims strictly more about the nature of the universe than is required by the evidence we have. Nonlocality is established by experiment, non-realism is not. In my experience, this ten…

Post by whatshisface » Fri, Oct 12, 2018, 12:01 PM UTC

m12k wrote: post #62

whatshisface wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're describing has been desired by many (including Einstein). However, John Bell more or less proved it impossible[0] in a landmark, sweepingly general result. He would have won a Nobel for it if he had lived long enough. On the other hand, if you are willing to accept superluminal messages and also unobservable mechanics, there is always the pilot wave interpretation[1]. The fluid analogy is disappointing to…

Thanks for the link to Bell's Theorem (I recalled there being a result like that, but didn't remember the details of it). If the hidden variables really are in a higher dimensional space, then maybe superluminal communication (in our observable dimensions of space) isn't off the table either? But that comes with its own can of worms that would have to be taken care of as well.

Post by consz » Fri, Oct 12, 2018, 12:12 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #25

pg_bot wrote: post #9

I was thinking about the double-slit problem the other day, and was trying to make connections to any other phenomenon that exists in the natural world and I think I came up with one. In conditional probability theory, there exists something called the boy or girl paradox. The paradox shows that the likelihood of an event can be drastically affected by how you know even seemingly innocuous information. I think that o…

I'm having a fundamental problem understanding why the paradox is modeled the way it is. "Mr. Smith has two children. At least one of them is a boy. What is the probability that both children are boys?" For some reason, it's expanded as a choice from {BB, BG, GB, GG}. But why on Earth does the order of children matter in this question? The way I see it, it should be modeled as {both-boys, boy-and-girl, both-girls}; b…

Post by eggie » Fri, Oct 12, 2018, 12:22 PM UTC

phkahler wrote: post #67

Has anyone done the double slit experiment with the long wall before the slits? I'm not entirely convinced it still works unless it has been demonstrated.