Abstract
We point out that the assumption that a quantum-mechanical state vector collapses in a Lorentz-covariant way upon measurement is consistent, but that it implies that the state vector, and any reality which it represents, depends on position. We consider the specific example of collapse along the forward light cone of the measurement.
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1. Participating Guest, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
2. Of course an actual measurement takes a finite amount of time, and occupies a finite amount of space. We will employ the idealization that these finite amounts can be treated as if they were infinitesimal.
3. The reader who thinks of “the disappearance of probability from bottle A, as described from B,” and “the increase in probability in bottle B, as described from B” as events occurring at two different places (one event at A, the other at B) will be surprised that the two events are simultaneous in all frames. Better to think of both events as occurring at B, the description point.
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Finkelstein, J. Covariant collapse of the state vector and realism. Found Phys Lett 5, 383–392 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00690595
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00690595