Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction by John Polkinghorne

Author:John Polkinghorne
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2002-05-09T04:00:00+00:00

(3) New physics

Some have considered that solving the measurement problem will call for more radical thinking than simply pushing further principles that are already familiar to science. Ghirardi, Rimmer, and Weber have made a particularly interesting suggestion along these innovative lines (which has come to be known as the GRW theory). They propose that there is a universal property of random wavefunction collapse in space, but that the rate at which this happens depends on the amount of matter present. For quantum entities on their own, this rate is too tiny to have any noticeable effect, but in the presence of macroscopic quantities of matter (for instance, in a piece of classical measuring apparatus) it becomes so rapid as to be practically instantaneous.

This is a suggestion that, in principle, would be open to investigation through delicate experiments aimed at detecting other manifestations of this propensity to collapse. In the absence of such empirical confirmation, however, most physicists regard the GRW theory as too ad hoc to be persuasive.

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