The Quantum Zeno Effect
Leslie Ballentine promoted the ensemble interpretation in his book Quantum Mechanics, A Modern Development. In it, he described what he called the "Watched Pot Experiment". His argument was that, under certain circumstances, a repeatedly measured system, such as an unstable nucleus, would be prevented from decaying by the act of measurement itself. He initially presented this as a kind of reductio ad absurdum of wave function collapse.
The effect has been shown to be real. (It is more widely known as the quantum Zeno effect). Ballentine later wrote papers claiming that it could be explained without wave function collapse.
Read more about this topic: Ensemble Interpretation
Famous quotes containing the words quantum and/or effect:
“But how is one to make a scientist understand that there is something unalterably deranged about differential calculus, quantum theory, or the obscene and so inanely liturgical ordeals of the precession of the equinoxes.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)
“To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people. A conceited man is satisfied with the effect he produces on himself.”
—Max Beerbohm (1872–1956)