Zenith Grant Awardee
Catalina Oana Curceanu
Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
Project Title
\"Events\" as we see them: experimental test of the collapse models as a solution of the measurement-problem.
Project Summary
One of the main pillars of our understanding of Nature and the Universe is the Quantum Theory (QT), which, in spite of its tantalizing success, generates many debates, rooted in its puzzles, which trigger efforts towards a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms. What we know about the world is based on the “events” we measure. But the measurement process is hiding one of the deepest mysteries of QT: the “measurement problem”. A system evolves, according to the QT, as being in a linear superposition of all the allowed states, but, when a measurement takes place, only one state emerges as the unambiguous “event”. How (even whether) the wave function collapses? This phenomenon harbors the secrets of the “Physics of What Happens”, with implications in cosmology, philosophy, and in understanding brain and consciousness. We shall perform the first dedicated experiment in the Gran Sasso (Italy) low-background underground laboratory, to investigate an elegant solution proposed to solve the “measurement problem”: the Dynamical Reduction Models. We will achieve a far deeper understanding of the “measurement problem”, intimately connected to the Physics of What Happens, and we might even glance to the theory beyond the actual QT, in the quest for unveiling reality.
Technical Abstract
We will investigate the phenomenon which harbors the secrets of the “Physics of What Happens”: the collapse of the wave function, generating the “events” on which relies our comprehension of Nature and the Universe. The collapse of the wave function gave birth in Quantum Theory to the “measurement problem”, to which huge theoretical efforts are devoted. As a result of these efforts, the Dynamical Reduction Models (DRM) provide a consistent framework for understanding how “classical world” emerges from quantum mechanics. DRM’s dynamics practically preserves the quantum linearity for the microscopic systems, but becomes strongly nonlinear going towards macroscopic scale, giving birth to specific experimentally testable predictions. We will compute the rate of the spontaneous radiation emitted by the charged particles, as a consequence of the DRM collapse mechanism, and perform the first dedicated measurement by using ultra-pure Germanium detectors in the Gran Sasso (Italy) underground laboratory. We will either set a limit on the collapse rate below the theoretical value, then the DRM need to be either discarded or modified, or unveil signals of the collapse mechanism. In either case we’ll achieve a deeper understanding of reality and we might even glimpse the theory beyond the actual Quantum Theory.
QSpace Latest
PressRelease: Shining a light on the roots of plant “intelligence”
All living organisms emit a low level of light radiation, but the origin and function of these ‘biophotons’ are not yet fully understood. An international team of physicists, funded by the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, has proposed a new approach for investigating this phenomenon based on statistical analyses of this emission. Their aim is to test whether biophotons can play a role in the transport of information within and between living organisms, and whether monitoring biophotons could contribute to the development of medical techniques for the early diagnosis of various diseases. Their analyses of the measurements of the faint glow emitted by lentil seeds support models for the emergence of a kind of plant ‘intelligence,’ in which the biophotonic emission carries information and may thus be used by plants as a means to communicate. The team reported this and reviewed the history of biophotons in an article in the journal Applied Sciences in June 2024.