Serafino,
I think I get the gist of what you are saying but it is not quite
the case. There is no energy flux directly associated with
wave-functions (like with electomagnetic or mechanical waves)
but is a probability density and a probability flux associated with
the square of linear functionals of the wave-function. The physical
quantities (observables) pertaining to any physical system described
by the WF typically do not have fixed values assigned by the theory
but only "expectation values", i.e. probabilities of being found in
one among many of their possible eigenvalues. Quantum Mechanics
tells you how to compute these expectation values but only
specific experiments assign one among them to a specific system.
If I understand what you are trying to say below there is indeed
a way of, a posteriori, trying to build a more or less classical
picture of a propagation of a beam or even a single particle
(represented by a wave packet or something like it).
That is what is called a local hidden variable model for QM
and it works fairly well for a single isolated degree of freedom.
But, as it turns out, none of these clever "cartoons" can be
used to fully interpret the quantum description; this is
not merely the result of a theorem but something which has been
verified empirically numerous times by now.
Come to think of it, even my correction to Lee is in need of
correction because QM is not just about amplitudes! The
phase relations between wave functions play a very
central role in the non local phenomena (i.e. Berry and
Aharonov-Bohm effects) so the myth of "just amplitudes"
should be dispelled by now.
Best regards,
Godfrey Kurtz
(New Brunswick, NJ)
-----Original Message-----
From: scerir <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: everything-list@eskimo.com
Sent: Thu, 18 Aug 2005 22:55:51 +0200
Subject: Re: "Naive Realism" and QM
Godfrey:
> My point, if I can break it down a bit,
> is that the amplitudes correspond,
> not to "things" but to processes
> and that what the amplitudes let you
> compute are relative probabilities for
> the occurrences of such processes.
Maybe. Amplitudes of (whatever) waves
satisfy linear equations. So, amplitudes
combine linearly when several paths are -
in principle - possible. On the contrary,
the intensity of waves, that is to say
the energy flux, is quadratic in the field
amplitudes. So, intensities do not combine
linearly. If we imagine there is a relation
between the energy flux and the number of
particles crossing a given (unit) area (this
can be the quantum principle, or the quantum
postulate) we also imagine there is a relation
between the energy flux - quadratic in the
field amplitudes - and the probability for
those particles crossing that (unit) area.
We can also imagine now there is only one
particle flying ....
Regards,
serafino
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