Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Physics
Quantum Mechanics & Its Broader Implications: The Von Neumann– Wigner Interpretation, Aeowyn Kendall
Quantum Mechanics & Its Broader Implications: The Von Neumann– Wigner Interpretation, Aeowyn Kendall
Computing, Mathematics and Physics Student Scholarship
Essay for PHYS 402 Quantum Mechanics
Like the popular Copenhagen Interpretation, the von Neumann-Wigner Interpretation of quantum mechanics posits that measurement causes a collapse of the wavefunction. Once observed, the wavefunction collapses from a superposition of various states to just one of the possibilities. While the Copenhagen Interpretation does not identify what constitutes a measurement, an observer, or an observation, the von Neumann-Wigner Interpretation specifies that consciousness is necessary for the measurement process to occur (we might say a reading of the measurement), and that it is consciousness itself that causes wavefunction collapse. In simple terms, the von Neumann-Wigner Interpretation …