Read the first section of this paper. Conservation of energy absolutely is a problem for objective collapse theories.
The definition of conservation being employed in the paper is this: The probability distribution of the eigenvalues of a conserved quantity must remain constant. If this condition isn’t satisfied, it’s hard to see why one should consider the quantity conserved.
ETA: I can also give you a non-technical heuristic argument against conservation of energy during collapse. When a particle’s position-space wavefunction collapses, its momentum-space wavefunction must spread out in accord with the uncertainty principle. In the aggregate, this corresponds to increase in the average squared momentum, which in turn corresponds to an increase in kinetic energy. So collapse produces an increase in energy out of nowhere.
Yeah, the paper I linked doesn’t have anything on experimental detection of the violation. I offered it as support for my claim that the math for energy conservation doesn’t work out in collapse interpretations. Do you agree that it shows that this claim is true? Anyway, here’s a paper that does discuss experimental consequences.
Again, my point only applies to objective collapse theories, not instrumentalist theories that use collapse as a calculational device (like the original Copenhagen interpretation). The big difference between these two types of theories is that in the former there is a specified size threshold or interaction type which triggers collapse. Instrumentalist theories involve no such specification. This is why objective collapse theories are empirically distinct from MWI but instrumentalist theories are not.
Read the first section of this paper. Conservation of energy absolutely is a problem for objective collapse theories.
The definition of conservation being employed in the paper is this: The probability distribution of the eigenvalues of a conserved quantity must remain constant. If this condition isn’t satisfied, it’s hard to see why one should consider the quantity conserved.
ETA: I can also give you a non-technical heuristic argument against conservation of energy during collapse. When a particle’s position-space wavefunction collapses, its momentum-space wavefunction must spread out in accord with the uncertainty principle. In the aggregate, this corresponds to increase in the average squared momentum, which in turn corresponds to an increase in kinetic energy. So collapse produces an increase in energy out of nowhere.
I have skimmed through the paper, but I don’t see any mention of how such a hypothetical violation can be detected experimentally.
Yeah, the paper I linked doesn’t have anything on experimental detection of the violation. I offered it as support for my claim that the math for energy conservation doesn’t work out in collapse interpretations. Do you agree that it shows that this claim is true? Anyway, here’s a paper that does discuss experimental consequences.
Again, my point only applies to objective collapse theories, not instrumentalist theories that use collapse as a calculational device (like the original Copenhagen interpretation). The big difference between these two types of theories is that in the former there is a specified size threshold or interaction type which triggers collapse. Instrumentalist theories involve no such specification. This is why objective collapse theories are empirically distinct from MWI but instrumentalist theories are not.