Single Particles
According to proponents of this interpretation, no single system is ever required to be postulated to exist in a physical mixed state so the state vector does not need to collapse.
It can also be argued that this notion is consistent with the standard interpretation in that, in the Copenhagen interpretation, statements about the exact system state prior to measurement can not be made. That is, if it were possible to absolutely, physically measure say, a particle in two positions at once, then quantum mechanics would be falsified as quantum mechanics explicitly postulates that the result of any measurement must be a single eigenvalue of a single eigenstate.
Read more about this topic: Ensemble Interpretation
Famous quotes containing the words single and/or particles:
“... So damn your food and damn your wines,
Your twisted loaves and twisting vines,
Your table d’hôte, your à la carte,
. . . .
From now on you can keep the lot.
Take every single thing you’ve got,
Your land, your wealth, your men, your dames,
Your dream of independent power,
And dear old Konrad Adenauer,
And stick them up your Eiffel Tower.”
—Anthony Jay (b. 1930)
“When was it that the particles became
The whole man, that tempers and beliefs became
Temper and belief and that differences lost
Difference and were one? It had to be
In the presence of a solitude of the self....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)