I'm currently trying to self-lean QM by reading and working through "A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics" by Townsend. Great book! Lot's of excises too.

But, what really makes it all work is that while I'm reading the book I'm constantly asking ChatGPT questions to clarify the things in the book or to explain some background physics. It's actually really good at explaining this, including deriving things as rigorously and mathematically as needed to really understand things. And of course you can keep asking questions, and questions about the answers until you're fully satisfied that you understand it.

It's like having indefinitely long office hours with your QM Prof, who never looses patients with you and keeps explaining, no matter how trivial or basic your questions become.

So, yea this tool is absolutely amazing for anyone wanting to self-learn QM.

(By the way, I'm also now using DeepSeek a bit, and it seems to be just as good of a QM teacher).

I know this isn't r/philosophy.
I am not a very intelligent person. I am aware. Quantum mechanics seem to be a sort of religion to me. It gives my brain the most enjoyment. I can sit and think about it for hours. I don't even have a very strong grasp of the topic as a whole but that doesn't stop me from being endlessly fascinated.

The greatest mystery in existence is consciousness, it seems to me that there is a quantum function playing a key role. Are there any articles on this?

A few weeks ago I was at work day dreaming and I came up with this question. "What happens in the double slit experiment if the observer is an AI?"

I know a human observer can change the results of the test upon observation but what happens if an AI is observing?

Fusion is the fusing of two atoms into one, like two hydrogen into one helium, and it generates a tremendous amount of heat, light and energy.

So what happens if we where to separate atoms, so one helium into two hydrogen?

I have three theories myself, but I don't know that much about quantum physics, and I'm interested to see what theories and answers this post will get.

So here are my theories:

1 (and I think the most likely): it costs alot of energy, the surrounding area gets cold, and nothing exciting happens.

2 (more propable than the 3, but less than 1): we create a black hole. If we take a look at a star, we'll see that it emits a lot of light via fusion. So if we do the opposite, we should get a reaction that sucks in a lot of light, or also known as: a black hole.

3 (least likely): for some vague quantum reason it still creates a tremendous amount of energy, but it sucks up heat, and we have invented cold fusion.

Preface: I studied quantum mechanics 20 years ago in college and maintained a cursory curiosity in my adult life. I've read the standard texts but haven't taken it much further. So please bear with me.

I have a theory that explains quantum entanglement that I haven't read anywhere else nor heard anyone posit. I'm curious what reddit thinks. Essentially, the theory is that two particles are entangled because they are part of the same structure in the 4th dimension. If you extrapolate this into lower dimensions it looks like this. Imagine two circles that appear unconnected are spinning in the same direction. You force one of the circles to spin in the opposite direction and immediately the 2nd circle changes its direction as well. Now imagine that those two circles are the ends of a rod in the 3rd dimension. When you change the spin of one of the circles you're actually spinning the entire rod but you can only see the circles because you're in 2D. So maybe 2 particles that don't appear related are, in fact, part of the same structure, but that structure exists in the 4th dimension and we only see the 3D aspect of the particles.

my humble theory... any thoughts?

If we're always moving toward the next-right-thing, then why does old age exist? Wouldn't it seem to be better if we stayed at our optimal health? Please answer in layman's terms

So I’ve been reading about quantum mechanics for a little while now, and I’ve had a few questions. I’ve set up a Michelson interferometer to watch light interfere and it was pretty incredible. My takeaway though is that light in its ‘natural’, unadulterated state functions very obviously as a wave, and I know this because, well, I looked at it with my eyeballs. It seems strange to me however to really ever consider light to also be a particle. I guess my question is, why would we ever consider light to be a particle? When has considering light to be a particle ever supported the wave nature of light? Yes I know about the photoelectric effect but it’s just disgusting. You abandon the idea that light is solely a wave which is just disappointing honestly. So I suppose any information that would really re enforce the existence of light as a particle would be nice. Also, wouldn’t it be beautiful if everything was wave interference? Damn. I guess I’m just confused, but that’s why I’m on reddit.

(I'm a complete beginner, so feel free to correct me - I will not take any offense)

From what I understand, it seems from QM's findings that there is a real element of randomness in the universe. I've heard that Einstein didn't like that conclusion, because he wouldn't accept the implication that "God plays dice with the universe".

That being said, quantum theory was utilized in the creation of a practical weapon. That means that it's not just theory, but it actually works in practice. If so, wouldn't Einstein be forced to admit that QM is real and correct, ergo that God does play dice with the universe???

Thank you very much

I'm really sorry for the noob question. But who discovered that it's only like a thermometer changing the temperature of measured water, and what proof did they have?

Edit: I did study it in high school enough to know that before "measurement", one electron is actually an electron probability cloud, like the s orbital. And the electron is actually in superposition, it is everywhere, even infinitely far away from the nucleus of the atom, just with infinitely less probabilty of that position.

But once measurement is done, the electron is found to be on one 3d coordinate, not in superimpositions.

But what I don't understand is, what is "measurement", how is it measured? Through measuring electrical fields or something?

Edit: What I also don't understand is what is it really about measurement that causes the collapse

I've just finished reading 'Our Mathematical Universe' and am struggling to stop my head from spinning about many of its suggestions! But one of the first questions that come to mind is shouldn't there be exotic scenarios both natural, and occurring with people, where an event 'forever' flips between two states. I can't think of a great example but say in making a decision a person between two choices in one universes of the many they'll be trapped forever switching between the two choices; would this not be an inevitably if everything that can happen spawns a pair of universes?

Should I start a community called 'Quantum Kids' where High school kids learn about quantum mechanics and all the other stuff about modern Physics and science.

In the community I'll partner with other educators and teachers to create worksheets and lesson and also the students could interact in conversations and projects regarding quantum science and even quantum computing.

It seems like a good project to me.

What are your thoughts fellow redditors?

Made a box, with a device that creates random numbers using radioactive decay.

And have a computer inside that would hash that number and if the hash was equal to a specified hash, then it would wait 1/n seconds where n was a random number between 0 and 1. (0 would mean forever) after that wait the computer would send a signal, like a flashing light on the outside of the box to indicate that it has found a matching hash.

From outside no light means either found a hash, or has found a hash and waiting for an unknown amount of time, where a flashing light indicates that a hash has been found and has finished waiting.

What would happen?

Coherence is for quantum waves that can entangle, tunnel, and be in superposition. Decoherence is for physical/classical particles.

Somewhere around 50,000 bonded atoms will automatically be decohered. Anything smaller requires a decoherence event in its path to be classical.

If an object needs a decoherence event in its path to decohere, is it physical/real after the event? Is it still a group of wave packets, but only condensed now? Does it take around 50,000 bonded atoms to be physical particles? Do the 50,000 have to have a specific pattern of molecules? This explains why decohered particles can be influenced by the quantum field ..they are still waves. Decoherence is causing condensed wave packets that give the impression they are physical. Decoherence is causing a wave to condense like a slinky. Is decohered-condensed wave packets a new state of matter?

Are all quantum fields coherent? Is coherence the language of the unobservable? Is coherence the medium in which quantum waves propagate? Does coherence also exist in the future to flag decoherence events?

This is the Unified Theory of QM with GR.

Did we overlook one crucial detail about duality? Duality is not a physical/wave object. It is never physical, it is either waves or condensed wave packets (decoherence). Duality is a duality with coherent waves with condensed waves, nothing physical.

Decoherence and Wave collapse are not the same thing. Wave collapse is when a particle hits a physical object and dead stops. Decoherence is a particle being measured in flight and allowed to continue moving on its path. Decoherence now means all quantum particles are not physical/real.

Coherence is the state a wave has to be in to perform superposition, entanglement, and tunneling events. Coherence is orderly waves.

Does decoherence cause wave packets before the decoherence event because quantum fields do not use distance or time (aka spacetime)? Are wave packets using spacetime and the reason they can not be in superposition, entangle, or tunnel?

Wave packets are not physical despite the connotations. Duality of a free particle is many waves to a single wave. It’s like going from digital to analog. Decoherence triggers many plane waves to compile into a single wave packet. The quantum fields don’t use space and time, they are filled with plane waves. Compiled wave packets are restricted via spacetime.

I think wave packets are a candidate to be a new state of matter. Wave packets don’t exist in a certain group number of patterns or molecules. It equates the mass energy necessary to bend spacetime. It is the quantum/classical boundary.

Did we know all along that plane waves do not use spacetime? This means quantum fields do not use spacetime.

For the slower out there, "x" and "t" being undefined for plane waves means spacetime is not being used.

Unobserved/Coherent quantum waves do not propagate. This changes everything.

Hint: coherent waves are not real. Laser light can be coherent because they are not waves after wave collapse. Decohered laser light is wave packets that use spacetime.

This explains why superposition, entanglement, and tunneling require coherence. The unreal can get away with things like this.

Each quantum field has its own coherent plane wave. This is what unobservable quantum waves are. You're welcome. Consider QM solved.

The unreal is possible when spacetime is not involved. Coherence does not use spacetime. Anything coherent isn't real. Unobserved quantum waves are not real.