Causal Intuition and Delayed-Choice Experiments |
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Authors: | Michael B. Heaney |
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Affiliation: | Independent Researcher, 3182 Stelling Drive, Palo Alto, CA 94303, USA; |
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Abstract: | The conventional explanation of delayed-choice experiments appears to violate our causal intuition at the quantum level. I reanalyze these experiments using time-reversed and time-symmetric formulations of quantum mechanics. The time-reversed formulation does not give the same experimental predictions. The time-symmetric formulation gives the same experimental predictions but actually violates our causal intuition at the quantum level. I explore the reasons why our causal intuition may be wrong at the quantum level, suggest how conventional causation might be recovered in the classical limit, propose a quantum analog to the classical block universe viewpoint, and speculate on implications of the time-symmetric formulation for cosmological boundary conditions. |
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Keywords: | delayed-choice causality retrocausality advanced action numerical simulation |
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