# The 4 bugs, 1.12

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3.2 (2.3)  In some cases, the wave function of a physical variable of the system is in a superposition state at the beginning of the experiment. And then when measuring the variable during the experiment, that wave function collapses. Wrong.

A wave function (for a particular variable) is an intrinsic property of a physical system.

“Physical system” means the experimental-setup design, which includes not just objects and devices, but also operations.

The common misunderstanding comes from representing $\displaystyle{| \psi \rangle }$ as a sum of $\displaystyle{| \psi_L \rangle }$ and $\displaystyle{| \psi_R \rangle}$. But this is not a physical superposition, but a mathematical superposition only.

This mathematical superposition has 3 meanings (applications):

3.

Only the longcut version can avoid such meaningless questions.

If you insist on answering those questions:

How to collapse a wave function?

Replace system $\displaystyle{A}$ with system $\displaystyle{B}$.

It is not that the wave function $\displaystyle{\psi}$ evolves into $\displaystyle{\phi}$. Instead, they are just two different wave functions for two different systems.

How long does it take? How long is the decoherence time?

The time needed for the system replacement.

How to uncollapse a wave function?

Replace system $\displaystyle{B}$ with system $\displaystyle{A}$.

— Me@2022-02-27 12:41:31 AM

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The wave function “collapse” is actually a wave function replacement. It “happens” not during the experiment time, but during the meta-time, where the designer has replaced the experiment-setup design (that without activated device) with another one (that with activated device).

That’s how to resolve the paradoxes, such as EPR.

Anything you are going to measure is always classical, in the sense that it is the experiment designer that decides which variable is classical, by adding the measuring devices and measuring actions to the experiment design.

It is not that the wave collapses during the experiment when you turn on the detector to measure.

The detector and the planned action of activating it have already formed a “physical definition” that makes your experiment design to have a system being in a mixed state, instead of a superposition state, since the beginning of the experiment.

Put it more accurately, since a wave function is a mathematical function, not a physical field, it does not exist in physical spacetime.

In a sense, instead of existing at the time level of the experiment and the observer, a wave function exists at the meta-time level, the time level of the experiment-setup designer.

So it is meaningless to say “the experimental setup is in a superposition state (or not) in the beginning of the experiment”. Instead, we should say:

The detector and the planned action of activating it have already formed a “physical definition” that makes your experiment design to have a system being in a mixed state, instead of a superposition state, since the beginning of the experiment.

— Me@2022-02-14 10:35:27 AM

— Me@2022-02-21 07:17:28 PM

— Me@2022-02-22 07:01:40 PM

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