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Quantum Mechanics and Torah

by Yosef Sebag, physicist, electrical engineer

From time immemorial, the universe appeared to be governed by laws which are unintelligent, blind, and mechanical.

All that was about to change drastically with the advent of quantum mechanics...

As we will see, perhaps the most tangible lessons about G-d ever revealed since the 10 plagues are being revealed from quantum mechanics.

Fasten your seat-belts and let us peer into the fascinating realm of quantum mechanics. In my research on this, I have tried to sift through the truth from the nonsense. There is, unfortunately, a plethora of misinformation by new-agers, mystics, pseudo-scientists, charlatans, etc. etc. Let us begin, be'H.

Quantum Entanglement

Quantum entanglement is like having one single object in two different places at the same time. Consider the following analogy.

When a person looks in a mirror, he sees a reflection of himself. If he lifts his right arm, his mirror image twin will lift his left arm. If he turns his head clockwise, the mirror image twin will turn his head counter-clockwise.

What about if the person in the mirror was not just a reflection of light, but a real actual person just like himself? And what if this twin person was not opposite you but rather in a different country thousands of kilometers away? Even so, whatever you do, he does the same complimentary thing - instantly, with no time delay, despite being thousands of kilometers away.

What would you say if this occurred in real life?

It looks like a video game simulation whereby the programmer can institute arbitrary rules and enforce them with his program. In short it appears to be a virtual reality simulation.

So too if this happened in real life, one would suspect that his world is not as real as he thought. After all, there is no apparent physical connection between him and his twin. Furthermore, there is no time delay, no reaction time between him and his twin. Both are perfectly correlated. Thus, it seems his world reality, his universe, is merely a "program", a virtual reality, produced by something else outside it.

Well, this phenomena does occur in real life. It exists in quantum mechanics and is called "quantum entanglement". Even Einstein was stumped by it. In fact, he was so riled by this phenomena that he called it "spooky action at a distance". Let us explain.

When two or more particles are born together in a quantum process under special conditions, they can become inextricably linked or "entangled".

For example, a pair of electrons are born together in a special process which was known to have zero total spin. The two electrons are now entangled.

Each electron's spin initially exists as a random mix of all possibilities (as we will explain next section).

However, when one electron is later measured and its spin materializes randomly to say, a clockwise spin, its twin will also instantly materialize, wherever it is, with a complementary counter-clockwise spin. Thus, the total spin adds up to zero for both particles.

Similarly for photons of light (or other quantum objects), let's say an entangled pair of photons are generated by a special process. The two photons fly apart at the speed of light and each one initially exists as a cloud of possibilities. If one is later measured and its polarization materializes randomly to say, vertical polarization - then its twin will also materialize instantly with a complementary horizontal polarization to maintain the total balance of polarization as per the conservation laws.

According to quantum theory, the two twins can even be on opposite sides of the universe. Nevertheless, whatever happens to one, the other will follow along instantly - with zero time delay.

One experiment demonstrated the linkage to be at least 10,000 times faster than the speed of light, the limit of the experiment's accuracy.

Another experiment used light from distant galaxies on opposite sides of the universe to confirm that no classical explanation is possible. All the loophole explanations have failed and quantum mechanics appears to be how reality works^[1].

What does this tell us about reality? What is tracking these particles and forcing this correlation between them? There is no apparent physical connection between them.

Are they communicating and reacting instantly? Blind, mechanical objects don't work like this. They need time to communicate and react.

Do they have some sort of ESP knowledge into each other? Of course not, they are just mindless inanimate objects.

Who then is doing the accounting here and forcing them to obey the conservation laws? Whatever this Power is, it evidently transcends space and time. For it affects both particles at once despite their distance in space or time. Spooky indeed.

Let us examine another core area of quantum mechanics.

Superposition

Imagine hearing a large crowd of people just behind your front door. You hear the voice of your mother, your father, your friend, neighbor, uncle, the postman, the repair man, etc. etc. You open the front door but are surprised to find there is only one person there. Weird. You close the door and instantly hear the large crowd again behind the door. You open the door quickly and step outside to look around but again only one person there and one voice. Totally confused, you repeat this process again and again but each time the same thing happens. At this point you start to question whether this is some kind of prank or that you are losing your sanity... Welcome to the strange world of superposition. Let us begin..

When the Quantum theory was first presented, many, including Einstein, thought it was crazy. Einstein famously said: "If it is correct, it signifies the end of physics as a science".

Although, quantum theory was incredibly successful mathematically at explaining the world (and still is), nevertheless it makes absolutely no sense from a reality perspective.

To appreciate this, consider the square root of 9. This number has a reality, √9 = 3, since 3x3=9. That makes sense, right?

What about the square root of -1?

There is no real number which when multiplied by itself equals -1. This "number", x = √-1 exists only in our imagination. It cannot exist in the real world. You can't have √-1 apples. That's meaningless.

But it can exist in the realm of mathematics since mathematics is just abstract logic. In math, one can also suppose things impossible in reality and work with them logically. For math is not truth^[2]. Math is just true logic we apply to whatever premises we adopt. The premises need not be possible, real, or true in reality. In math we can suppose all sorts of imaginary abstractions, infinities, paradoxes, etc. that are impossible in the physical world. For although mathematics is inspired by our (perceived) reality (1+1 apples=2 apples), but it can quickly and rigorously abstract from that reality.

This is the problem with quantum mechanics. An electron or photon's properties can be modeled mathematically but from a real world perspective, it makes absolutely no sense. It is an impossible contradiction.

For example, in quantum-mechanics an electron may spin both clockwise and counter-clockwise^[3], or be both at rest and excited, at the same time! Likewise a photon can go entirely through two slits at the same time.

Try to picture that one in reality! Good luck.

But in math, it can be modeled mathematically as a "probability wave". A mathematical function of all possibilities. Thus it can spin clockwise and counter-clockwise or go through one slit and also another simultaneously (at least from a classical perspective). No problem. It is just an abstract mathematical structure.

Measurement

The problem comes when one tries to measure it. For that would lead to impossible contradictions. In reality it is impossible for something to spin both entirely clockwise and entirely counter-clockwise simultaneously, or to be entirely in two places simultaneously. That is only possible in the abstract world of pure mathematics.

So the act of measurement does a curious thing. It forces the electron to materialize and become real. The abstract "mathematical wave" existence collapses and all its properties assume a single defined real state.

For otherwise, the measurement would have trapped it with contradictions. Nature would have totally contradicted itself, so to speak (and we can't have that in G-d's rational, orderly world).

Therefore, when a measurement is obtained, even in principle, its abstract mathematical existence collapses and the object materializes into something real with well-defined properties.

The big question physicists have is how did the measurement affect the photon or electron, etc.? As far as it is concerned, it merely encountered some atoms. There is no real difference between a measuring device and a non-measuring device. Both are merely arbitrary arrangements of atoms.

This is one of the big spooky mysteries in quantum mechanics. Why does the outcome of a quantum experiment change depending on whether or not we choose to measure some property of the particles involved? This seems to undermine the basic assumption behind all science: that there is an objective world out there, irrespective of us^[4]. Why does obtaining immaterial information affect the material world?

Scientists have since played a long game of hide and seek to try to sneak in a measurement behind the photon's back in elaborate ways. But the universe always caught on and foiled their plans (as we will see).

Whenever tracking information was available to the experimenter, the photon materialized and shed its abstract mathematical nature. Whenever the tracking information was not available, the photon retained its abstract mathematical nature and did not materialize into reality.

As we will see soon, even if the tracking information was later erased the photon retained its abstract mathematical nature and did not materialize. Even stranger, even if the tracking information was not erased but merely obfuscated so that it is no longer readable to the experimenter, the photon retained its abstract mathematical nature.

Spooky indeed. How can this inanimate photon know all this? And doesn't knowledge imply a Knower?

Now that we have an overview of the core principles, let us examine an actual experiment to get a clearer understanding.

The Incredible Double Slit Experiment

The most clear and instructive example into the nature of quantum mechanics is the famous double slit experiment. This deceptively simple experiment penetrates to the heart of quantum theory. We will start with a simple version and build up.

The double slit experiment was devised to determine whether light is a particle or a wave. This was a debate that ensued for centuries.


If we beam some light through a double slit, then if light is a particle, we would expect the screen to have a two-band bullet (particle) pattern and look like the upper picture on the left. This is what we would expect to see if we fired bullets through a wall with two openings.

Instead however we get a curious result - an interference (wave) pattern like the bottom picture on the left.

It turns out this interference pattern is exactly what we would expect if light were a wave instead of a particle. The cancellation of crests and troughs in the motion of water and other waves creates high and low points which combine to form the same "interference pattern". So there you have it, light has a wave nature!

But the story was far from over..

The next odd thing came when light was shot one photon at a time^[5] (see picture on right). Photons are indivisible elementary particles. They are the smallest unit of light. Surely, in this case we should only get a two band bullet pattern.

After a while of this, the points on the detector where the single photons landed also followed an interference pattern!

But how is this possible?! With what is the light interfering? There's only one single indivisible photon in there at one time. (a photon is an elementary particle which means it cannot be divided further. The same thing also happens when other elementary particles like electrons are fired through instead of photons).

Till this day, this phenomena has never been satisfactorily answered from a scientific perspective.

This is because there is no way to look at this from a physical, material perspective. If it is a wave, it is not a particle. And if it is a particle, it is not a wave. Einstein said: "We are faced with a new kind of difficulty. We have two contradictory pictures of reality; separately neither of them fully explains the phenomena of light, but together they do."

(note: some scientists tried to salvage the physical, material worldview by speculating there are infinite parallel universes "next door". Each universe has one possible outcome of every physical situation. Together, the infinite universes contain all possible outcomes of every physical situation. These supposed universes overlap with each other to produce this effect. Of course, even proponents of this radical "Many Worlds theory" admit that it sounds crazy and strains credulity.^[6])

The generally accepted interpretation is that each particle passes simultaneously through both slits and interferes with itself (there are other ways to express this but it all boils down to the same thing).

This is possible because the photon is intrinsically undefined. As before, it's position and other properties exist only as a "superposition of states", a "probability wave" of all possible values until measured at the end detector. When measured by the end detector, the "probability wave" collapses and the photon materializes into a real, defined object.

This quantum probability wave is sometimes viewed as light waves or water waves. But this is a serious error. Water waves and light waves (as well as sound waves) contain something substantial like matter or energy. But quantum waves are just abstract information - mathematical possibilities.

Thus the quantum wave can "exist" in all possible states simultaneously with a probability value for each state. It can go through one slit and also the other and also neither and also both. No problem since it is just an abstract mathematical function. It is only immaterial information. It does not quite exist until a measurement is made.

This that the particle may be in more than one place at the same time, and other similar weirdness deeply bothered Einstein as he hoped for an "objective reality" independent of observers. This is a deep metaphysical mystery. In many ways, the strangeness has only gotten worse with advancing research^[4].

Why should the world of physical reality obey laws that belong in the world of abstract mathematical forms? Aren't mathematical forms just mental thought constructs?

Let us now try to force the quantum wave to show its true face. Let's try to detect which slit the photon's "information wave" went through. That's easy enough to do.

There are many ways to do this. We can add some quarter-wave-plates (QWP) before the slits (see diagram). One plate will alter the photon's polarity +45 degrees clockwise and the other plate will alter the photon's polarity -45 degrees counter-clockwise. (we rotated one QWP +45 degrees and the other -45 degrees so that there is a 90-degree polarization difference between the two)

Then we just add a polarization detection at the end detector. Thus, if the photon which arrived at the end detector had a polarization of +45 degrees we know it passed through slit A. And if it had a polarization of -45 degrees, then we know it went through slit B. This way, we can determine which slit this weird photon went through.

Result - no interference pattern. The photon no longer acted like an undefined "probability wave". Instead it defined itself into an actual particle at the slits (or before) and thus no interference pattern showed up at the end detector.

Somehow, the photon knew there was information on which slit it took and decided to collapse itself from an undefined probability wave to an actual particle with well-defined properties.

But when did this happen? At the quarter-wave-plates right? Did something in the quarter-wave-plates somehow cause the photons to define themselves? Nope. If we make both quarter-wave-plates +45 degrees or both -45 degrees, then the interference pattern returns.

So it seems it has nothing to do with the quarter wave plates. It is due solely to the "which way" tracking information now available. But how did the photon know whether this immaterial "information" was now available? Isn't information something that is relevant only to an intelligence?


Let's try again except we'll erase the "which way" information obtained by the quarter-wave-plates. This is easy to do. We can just add a polarization filter after the double slit.

This film will erase the polarization information we got from the quarter-wave-plates by passing only photons with vertical polarization. Those with horizontal polarization will be absorbed. Now, we no longer have any "which-way" tracking information for our end detectors to determine which slit the photon went through.

The result - interference pattern. Somehow, the universe knew we had erased the "which-way" information and no tracking information was available.

What if we try to erase the "which way" information in a different manner. Instead of adding the polarization film, we just turn off the polarization detectors at the end detectors. Will that also bring back the interference pattern? No.

It has nothing to do whether we actually know what happened. It seems only if the information is available, even in principle, then the wave function collapses and the photon becomes real.

Thus, it is not our own consciousness which is doing this as some new-age crack-pots claim. It is enforced by something outside of our consciousness^[7]. It seems there is an outside Consciousness involved here. Spooky indeed! For one way or another, it is hard to avoid the implication that consciousness and quantum mechanics are somehow linked.

Let's now try to trick the photon. We'll use entangled photons. As before, entangled photons are linked together. If one materializes to a vertical polarization, the other materializes to a horizontal polarization. Thus, we can erase the "which-way" information without meddling with the apparatus.

We can generate entangled photons by using a special crystal called a "beta-barium borate" (BBO). This crystal down converts a single energetic photon into two entangled photons, each with half energy of the original (it absorbs the energetic photon and emits two new photons).

Let us direct one entangled photon (Photon A) towards the same quarter wave plate setup as before and the other (Photon B) to a second detector (see picture on the left. ignore the "polarizer" there).

The result - no interference pattern for photon A. Makes sense. For we have "which way" information as to which slit it passed through.

Let's now scramble the second entangled photon (Photon B). We add a polarizing film in its path (labeled "polarizer" in the previous picture). This will alter the output polarity of photon B to a fixed value and the second entangled photon (Photon A) will be forced to do the same. In this way, we have effectively erased the "which-way" information obtainable for photon A which passed through the double slit by erasing the polarity tracking information after it passed through the double slit.

The result - interference pattern. Thus, it has nothing to do with those quarter wave plates! It is solely due to whether or not the tracking information is obtainable or not.

How about if we delay the scrambling? Let's scramble photon B after photon A has already hit the screen. We can do this by extending the photon B's path so it is longer than the first.

In this way, photon A will arrive at the detector before photon B was scrambled and thus there was "which-way" information for the duration of photon A's lifespan. The "which-way" information will be erased only AFTER photon A has already been detected.

Result - interference pattern! But how is this possible? Photon A ceased to exist before Photon B erased the which way information! It seems as if nature "knows" not just if we are looking, but also if we are planning to look.. Spooky!

How about if we don't erase the "which way" information at all? We just obfuscate it so we can't read it. This can be done with some half-mirrors. We can make the photon turn around randomly and thus we have no way to know from which slit it came (see video on left. must see).

This way the information is not erased. It's still there just now we can't read it.

The result - interference pattern! Since the tracking information was obfuscated, the universe knew we have no way to read the information even though the information was obtained and was still there in the photons!

Did the photon sense what we were up to? Did it have knowledge of our apparatus and decided it could safely remain an undefined probability wave?

Conclusion:

Obviously, the answer is not in the photon. The photon cannot know anything. It is just a mindless inanimate object.

What is really happening, (according to our torah sources) is there is an outside Consciousness who sees this chessboard of the universe and has ordained this rule which He presides over. He knows whether the information is obtainable to us or not.

This is akin to the Midrash on the Biblical Egyptian plague of blood.

The Midrash states that during this plague, not only did the Nile river turn to blood, but all water in the possession of an Egyptian also turned to blood. The water in his bucket at home turned to blood. The water in his canteen turned to blood. All water turned to blood and there was no way around this new "law" of nature.

The only water that remained water was that of a Jew. If the Egyptian tried to grab the water of a Jew by force, it instantly turned to blood. If he gave it back, it turned back to water.

The Midrash says that Egyptians tried to do "experiments" such as having an Egyptian and a Jew drink from the same glass with two straws. But there was no way to trick "nature". The result is that the Jew's straw pulled up water while the Egyptian's straw pulled up blood.

The only way the Egyptian could obtain water was to buy it from a Jew. Only then did the water of an Egyptian stay as water.

The message of course was not that this is a blind physical "law of nature", but rather - you are being watched. There is an all-seeing Intelligence presiding over nature who observes everything. So too here, this Intelligence knows what constitutes information and whether this information is obtainable or has been erased or obfuscated.

This is the lesson of quantum mechanics, if we assume everything in nature is to teach us something (Sefer Ikarim). It is also the first Halacha in the Shulchan Aruch and the reason we wear a kippah.

"This is the great principle of the Torah and among the virtues of the righteous who walk before G-d.. when one takes to heart that the Great King, the Holy One, Blessed Is He, Whose glory fills the world, is standing over him and watching his actions.." (Shulchan Aruch 1:1, Ramah)

Quotes on Quantum Mechanics

• "If it is correct, it signifies the end of physics as a science" - Albert Einstein
   
• "If someone says that he can think about quantum physics without becoming dizzy, that shows only that he has not understood anything whatever about it." - Niels Bohr
   
• "If you are not completely confused by quantum mechanics, you do not understand it" - physicist John Wheeler
   
• "Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real. If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet" - Niels Bohr
   
• "The atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts" - Werner Heisenberg
   
• "I do not like it, and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it" - Erwin Schrodinger
   
• "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics" - Richard Feynman
   
• "We choose to examine a phenomenon [Double-slit experiment] which is impossible, absolutely impossible, to explain in any classical way, and which has in it the heart of quantum mechanics" - Richard Feynman - The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol.3 Ch.1
   
• "Quantum mechanics makes absolutely no sense" - Roger Penrose
   
• "A fundamental conclusion of the new physics also acknowledges that the observer creates the reality. As observers, we are personally involved with the creation of our own reality. Physicists are being forced to admit that the universe is a 'mental' construction." - R.C. Henry, a professor at The Johns Hopkins University
   
• "The stream of knowledge is heading toward a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter, we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter." - physicist Sir James Jeans
   
• "Whatever matter is, it is not made of matter"- Prof. Hans-Peter Durr
   
• "Observations not only disturb what is to be measured, they produce it." - Pascual Jordan, a mathematical physicist
   
• "The inner mysteries of quantum mechanics require a willingness to extend one's mental processes into a strange world of phantom possibilities, endlessly branching into more and more abstruse chains of coupled logical networks, endlessly extending themselves forward and even backwards in time." - J.C. Ward, Memoirs of a Theoretical Physicist (Optics Journal, Rochester, 2004)
   
• "My own conclusion is that today there is no interpretation of quantum mechanics that does not have serious flaws. This view is not universally shared. Indeed, many physicists are satisfied with their own interpretation of quantum mechanics. But different physicists are satisfied with different interpretations. In my view, we ought to take seriously the possibility of finding some more satisfactory other theory, to which quantum mechanics is only a good approximation." - Steven Weinberg, Lectures on Quantum Mechanics (2nd ed., 2015), Ch.3
   
• "There's no such thing as objective reality.. Physicists have long suspected that quantum mechanics allows two observers to experience different, conflicting realities. Now they've performed the first experiment that proves it" - MIT technology review, march 2019

Final Words

As before, once a person realizes our reality does not exist objectively. It is merely a virtual reality created by a Superbeing, then all the contradictions and spookiness goes away. Indeed, in the book Tanya, (Shaar Yichud v'Emuna ch. 7):

"G-d's Thought and Knowledge of all created beings encompasses each and every creature, for this is its very life-force and that which grants it existence from absolute nothingness."

Great scientists have also expressed similar sentiments. Max Planck, key founder of the quantum theory and one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century, said:

"As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter".

Quantum Mechanics catalyzed this perception. But really, just the fact that the universe is governed by mathematical rules is itself an indication that we live in a virtual reality. For as physicist Richard Feynman said:

"What turns out to be true, is that the more we investigate, the more laws we find, and the deeper we penetrate nature, the more this disease persists. Every one of our laws is a purely mathematical statement in rather complex and abstruse mathematics. Newton's statement of the law of gravity is relatively simple mathematics. It gets more and more abstruse and more and more difficult as we go on. Why? I have not the slightest idea... It is impossible to explain honestly the beauties of the laws of nature in a way people can feel without their having some deep understanding of mathematics... Mathematics is not just a language. It is a tool for reasoning... It is in fact the results of some person's careful thought and reasoning (emphasis mine). By mathematics it is possible to connect one statement to another... - The Character of Physical Law, Feynman pg.42

Thus, mathematics is "someone's careful thought and reasoning". It is sound, logical reasoning. Isn't that itself an indication of a Thinker behind the laws of nature? For a mathematical formulation is a mental idea, and a mental idea cannot exist without a Mind.

---

Other Possible Lessons from Quantum Mechanics

* The world is made to be observed. Without an intelligent being to observe it (man), it is all meaningless. According to Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt'l, this is why the first statement by G-d in the Torah is "let there be light". For without light, man cannot observe G-d's beautiful handiwork and thus it has no purpose and is as if it does not exist. Perhaps this is one of the lessons hinted in quantum mechanics. For things don't fully exist until measured (though not necessarily by a human. As before, the information just needs to be obtainable, even in principle).

* Man's ability to inquire about the world is limited. He can go up to here and no more. So too in quantum mechanics, he can deduce that a quantum object exists as a wave of probabilities, but if he tries to go further and measure it, even in elaborate and sneaky ways, his plan will be foiled and the object will collapse its phantom nature and materialize into a real object.

* According to Kabbala, the creation transitions gradually from the Divine, to the Spiritual, and finally to the physical. Perhaps, the abstract mathematical wave in quantum mechanics is the interface where the spiritual reality meets the physical reality?

* The quantum wave prefers to stay undefined as long as possible. Perhaps this is to hint to us to also stay undefined as the Ramchal writes: "The general principle of the matter: if a person thinks he possesses any of the good things of the world, he is in immediate danger of falling in this pit of arrogance" (Path of the Just ch.11)

* Our actions have repercussions in higher worlds. We are like entangled photons, except our twin (higher soul) is in the upper spheres as discussed in the book "Nefesh HaChaim".

* Quantum Mechanics teaches on the absolute Unity of G-d. He transcends time and space and can see the entire universe and everything in it including its past, present, and future in one single glance (see the Rambam on the mishna in Rosh Hashana "all are examined in one sweeping look"). Physicist David Bohm unwittingly hinted to this idea when he said:

"The entire universe must, on a very accurate level, be regarded as a single indivisible unit in which separate parts appear as idealisations permissible only on a classical level of accuracy of description. This means that the view of the world being analogous to a huge machine, the predominant view from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, is now shown to be only approximately correct. The underlying structure of matter, however, is not mechanical. This means that the term "quantum mechanics" is very much a misnomer. It should, perhaps, be called "quantum nonmechanics". - David Bohm, Theoretical Physicist

* In the book "Reb Mendel" (Greenwald pg.208): "There's nothing in the creation that has to be the way it is. My Rebbe told me that even the fact that objects take up space is only because the Creator made the world to be like that. He could just as easily have made a world in which objects don't occupy space, just as the Aron (ark) did not take up any space in the Holy of Holies. My nephew the physicist tells me that in physics they talk about an object that can be here and not here - two opposites at the same time. That is like what I've said."

Footnotes

• [1] http://news.mit.edu/2018/light-ancient-quasars-helps-confirm-quantum-entanglement-0820 return to text
• [2] in the sense that truth in mathematics means logical truth, the logical results may be true. Of course, that's different from truth about the physical world. see philosophy.stackexchange.com/a/6389/33165 for an interesting discussion related to this. return to text
• [3] http://news.mit.edu/2016/neutrinos-weird-quantum-effects-over-hundreds-miles-0719 return to text
• [4] for example, a 2019 MIT experiment demonstrated for the first time that two observers can experience two conflicting realities. Another example, a 2012 experiment by Dr Alberto Peruzzo used a novel type of measurement apparatus that can measure both particle and wave-like behavior simultaneously. He concluded: "The measurement apparatus detected strong nonlocality, which certified that the photon behaved simultaneously as a wave and a particle in our experiment. This represents a strong refutation of models in which the photon is either a wave or a particle." return to text
• [5] note that until recent years, this was mostly a thought experiment since it was too difficult to build single photon sources. But its predictions have been verified in many ways since the 1960's, primarily with electrons. Recently, extremely sensitive CCDs used in photography have been used to collect single-photon events, establishing experimentally everything that Albert Einstein imagined, merely by thinking about it, as early as 1905. return to text
• [6] The Believing Scientist, pg.89 - by physicist Stephen Barr return to text
• [7] see also, the experiments by Shan Yu and Danko Nikolic in 2011 which claims to store the which-way information in the state of an atom. The information is there only in principle since currently the experimenters have no way to extract it. Nevertheless the wave-function collapsed. return to text

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