A Time-Symmetric Formulation of Quantum Entanglement

• Main Author: Michael B. Heaney
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-01-01
• Series: Entropy
• Subjects: quantum foundations; entanglement; time-symmetric; Hanbury Brown–Twiss (HBT); Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR); configuration space
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/2/179

I numerically simulate and compare the entanglement of two quanta using the conventional formulation of quantum mechanics and a time-symmetric formulation that has no collapse postulate. The experimental predictions of the two formulations are identical, but the entanglement predictions are significantly different. The time-symmetric formulation reveals an experimentally testable discrepancy in the original quantum analysis of the Hanbury Brown–Twiss experiment, suggests solutions to some parts of the nonlocality and measurement problems, fixes known time asymmetries in the conventional formulation, and answers Bell’s question “How do you convert an ’and’ into an ’or’?”