Behaviour of quantum systems
All that is, is a quantum system, consisting of a single quantum or some combination of quanta. The quanta within an quantum system are entangled, they cannot be understood as separate entities.
Quantum systems obey the following rules:
- Quantum systems resonate. The pattern of resonance defines the quantum system.
- Quantum systems tend to distribute their energy evenly over the degrees of freedom in which they can resonate.
- A quantum system contains the same item of information only once, in such a manner that whenever this information changes, it changes instantaneously for all objects to which it applies. For example, if two particles arise out of the same event, then the quantum system containing them both of them has just value for the spin of the particles, with the first particle having a spin of positive that value and the second particle having a spin of negative that value.
Quantum splitting
From the original quantum, all quanta originate, according to processes which are observable and observed in the universe. These processes are, essentially, the following:
- An existing quantum has potentiality to fluctuate to some combination of new quanta, bounded in time, place and result by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. [Note that the principle is misnamed, because uncertainty is an epiphenomenon, whereas the underlying phenomenon is a potentiality to exist. Hereafter we shall refer to it as the quantum potentiality. This potentiality determines the product of the duration and the energy difference of the fluctuation]. The fluctuation persists if:
- one or more of the new quanta interacts with the environment within the time window of this potentiality, or
- one or more of the new quanta themselves undergo a persistent fluctuation in that time window
- When a parent quantum splits into child quanta, the result is a quantum system consisting of the child quanta. These child quanta are entangled, because they belong to the same quantum system. The quantum system consisting of both of them remains entangled with everything the parent quantum was entangled with. Each quantum system will resonate in such a way as to distribute its energies over all the degrees of freedom available to it.
Union of quantum systems
Two quantum systems can join to create a new quantum system, which will tend to persist if the entropy of the new combination is higher. That is another way of saying that the distribution of energy is different to the sum of the energy distributions of the original quanta.
Note that the distribution of energy over the degrees of freedom is largely responsible for the effects which are typically understood as 'Collapsing the wave function'. The process of making a measurement unites the observer and the observed in a single quantum system. This process also reduces the degrees of freedom with respect to the quality of the quantum system that is being measured. Typically it can have only one value, not all possible values as was the case prior to the measurement. The energy of the original quantum system is therefore rearranged. Most likely some goes to the observer. In any case, it is the reduction of the degrees of freedom which causes the collapse, not the fact that some conscious being performs the measurement. The value to which it collapses is unpredictable, but this does not mean that prior to the collapse it really had the value it is measured to have. Prior to the collapse it had all the values that it could have, in the measure - a complex number, by the way - that it could have them.
What is not observed
In order to understand what it is about quantum systems that requires explanation, it is important to note which behaviour of quantum systems is implied by some theories, but nevertheless is not observed:
- Production of non-quanta: Quantum processes produce new quanta, never anything that is not a quantum.
- Infinities: Given that quantum processes act in time, and a finite time has elapsed since the genesis of the first quantum, nothing in the universe is infinite.
- Self-referencing: Quantum systems do not reference themselves.
- Resonating differences: The difference between two quantum systems is not of itself a quantum system, and cannot interact as a unit.
Explanations
These phenomena can be explained using an interpretation of QM, There are many interpretations, of which the most widely accepted is the Copenhagen interpretation. These all result in unobserved phenomena, as outlined above, and therefore require at least a 'hypothesis' to account for why they are unobserved. QO applies the QO interpretation. This involves a simple 'hypothesis', and therefore has an Occam score of 0010. It is therefore at least as credible as any other explanation.