SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 2008

Luminary: Bruce Rosenblum

Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness

Bruce Rosenblum

Bruce Rosenblum is Professor of Physics and former Chairperson of the Physics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has also consulted extensively for government and industry on technical and policy issues. His research has moved from molecular physics to condensed matter physics and, after a foray into biophysics, has focused on fundamental issues in quantum mechanics.

Every interpretation of quantum physics encounters consciousness. Rosenblum therefore turns to exploring consciousness itself--and encounter quantum physics. Free will and anthropic principles become crucial issues, and the connection of consciousness with the cosmos suggested by some leading quantum cosmologists is mind-blowing.

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Bruce Rosenblum teleseminar on "Quantum Enigma"

Bruce Rosenblum | 03.28.07 |

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Host Dean Radin and guest Bruce Rosenblum had an engaging discussion of The Quantum Enigma.

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Quantum Enigma

Submitted by pbreinhart on March 28, 2007 - 8:09pm.

(I'd be interested in Prof Rosenblum's thoughts on the situation described below. And, note the Einstein quote below which is from a private communication of Einstein to Michael Besso in 1951.)

Prof Bruce Rosenblum mentioned an enigma in QM: A particle is shot out and it can either be found in one box or another OR it can in some sense be in both boxes. Of course, this is related to the wave-particle paradox: one gets a wave if one looks for a wave (going though a double slit) OR one gets a particle (photon) going through one or another slit if one tries to determine which slit the PHOTON went through.

There is another possibility: the particle is in one box or another OR the wave is a little bit in both boxes AND THE THIRD POSSIBILITY is that both of the above are true as is described in the following RECENT journal article (I'm copying part of the first page so the ref. can be looked up):

DOI: 10.1007/s10701-006-9102-8

Paradox in Wave-Particle Duality∗

Shahriar S. Afshar,1,2 Eduardo Flores,1 Keith F. McDonald,1
and Ernst Knoesel1
Received December 1, 2005; revised November 26, 2006; Published online January 23, 2007
Communicated by Alwyn van der Merwe

We report on the simultaneous determination of complementary wave and particle
aspects of light in a double-slit type “welcher-weg” experiment beyond the limitations
set by Bohr’s Principle of Complementarity. Applying classical logic, we verify the
presence of sharp interference in the single photon regime, while reliably maintaining
the information about the particular pinhole through which each individual photon had
passed. This experiment poses interesting questions on the validity of Complemen-
tarity in cases where measurements techniques that avoid Heisenberg’s uncertainty
principle and quantum entanglement are employed. We further argue that the appli-
cation of classical concepts of waves and particles as embodied in Complementarity
leads to a logical inconsistency in the interpretation of this experiment.

KEY WORDS: principle of complementarity; wave-particle duality; non-
perturbative measurements; double-slit experiment; Afshar experiment.
PACS numbers: 03.65.Ta; 42.50.Xa; 14.70.Bh.

“All these fifty years of conscious brooding have brought me no nearer to the
answer to the question, ‘What are light quanta?’ Nowadays every Tom, Dick and
Harry thinks he knows it, but he is mistaken.”†

1. INTRODUCTION

Wave-particle duality as embodied in Bohr’s Principle of Complementarity
(BPC) has been a cornerstone in the interpretation of quantum mechan-