Scientists Study Link Between Quantum Mechanics and How we See the Universe

Rubin Blume-Kohout and Woljciech Zurek at the Los Alamos National Laboratory at New Mexico have been studying a dilemma that is created by quantum theory: How can the universe exist if no one is there to watch it?

According to quantum mechanics, until a quantum particle is observed, it exists as a wave function that can contain a superposition of many properties. However, the wave function collapses as soon as an observer makes a measurement, and then the particle behaves I a classic way.

To solve the dilemma Blume-Kohout and Zurek have formulated a theory they call "Quantum Darwinism." It says that the environment decides which quantum properties are the most likely to survive to be viewed by people. Quantum Darwinism says that in a given environment, some quantum properties will be more stable than other. As the quantum system interacts with the environment, many copies of the more stable state will be created throughout the environment. When people make measurements, they will most likely interact with one of the stable recorded copies, rather than directly with the actual quantum systems. This explains why multiple observers see the same results when making measurements.

To test the idea, the scientists built a computer model of an oscillating quantum object interacting with its environment. The quantum object was like a bowling ball on a pendulum, while a thousand other oscillators modelled the environment, like ping pong balls on strings swinging at different frequencies. After setting the bowling ball swinging, the scientists found the bowling ball's wave function appeared to have collapsed, while each ping pong ball contained the same record of the bowling ball's position.