Transactional interpretation

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The transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics (TIQM) by John Cramer is an unusual interpretation of quantum mechanics that describes quantum interactions in terms of a standing wave formed by retarded (forward-in-time) and advanced (backward-in-time) waves. The author argues that it avoids the philosophical problems with the Copenhagen interpretation and the role of the observer, and resolves various quantum paradoxes. Notably, it is claimed to be consistent with Shahriar Afshar's experiment.

The existence of both advanced and retarded waves as lawful solutions to Maxwell's equations was proposed by R. Feynman and J. Wheeler in 1945 (cited in original paper by J. Cramer). They used the idea to solve the problem of the infinite self-energy of an electron. Later, they refuted the idea of backward-in-time waves.

Cramer revived their idea of two waves to formulate his original interpretation of quantum theory. According to TIQM, any source emits a usual (retarded) wave of half the observed amplitude, while the detector emits a corresponding advanced wave of the same half amplitude. The phases of retarded and advanced waves are correlated in such a way that these two waves interfere positively in the space-time region, corresponding to true (observed) wave propagation, and they interfere negatively in all the other space-time (i.e., before emitting point and after absorption point). To an observer, this standing wave in space-time looks as if a particle has travelled through space.

Cramer uses TIQM in teaching quantum mechanics at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Literature

• Tim Maudlin, Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity, Blackwell Publishers 2002, ISBN 0631232206 (discusses a gedanken experiment designed to refute the TI)

See also

• Von Neumann's catastrophe

External links

• The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics - John Cramer's original paper
• An Overview of the Transactional Interpretation
• Photon Emission
• Pavel V. Kurakin, George G. Malinetskii,How bees can possibly explain quantum paradoxes, Automates Intelligents (February 2 2005). (This paper tells about a work attempting to develop TIQM further)
• quant-ph/0408109 Cramer's Transactional Interpretation and Causal Loop Problems an attempt to refute Maudlin's refutationpt:Interpretação transacional