State Vectors and Physical States

Abstract

Causality and the relativity of simultaneity seem at odds with the apparently sudden, acausal state-vector changes ("collapses") characteristic of quantum phenomena. The problem of how physical phenomena can be causally determined, have the probabilities predicted by quantum theory, and be consistent with special relativity appears to be solved by the assumption, essentially the same as one first used by Aharonov, Bergmann, and Lebowitz to address a different problem, that the "initial" and "final" state vectors of a phenomenon or observation, along with certain other state vectors, all represent the system's state at all times. Each member of such an aggregate of state vectors is postulated to represent a different aspect of a physical state rather than a state, so that most of the state vectors in effect constitute a set of nonlocal hidden variables. Various implications of this assumption are illustrated through several physical situations. Among the results is a somewhat surprising resolution of a paradox in a three-spin Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger experiment (a "three-particle EPR" experiment), which involves a logical consequence that differs from familiar ideas of quantum physics that has no practical experimental consequence, and the prediction of new experimental phenomena related to the Zou-Wang-Mandel superposed-idler system. The potential value of the concepts described as heuristics for new predictions and for developing physical intuition by clarifying the interrelation and coherence of physical principles that would otherwise seem contradictory is briefly discussed.