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Experimental tests of alternate postulates to describe excited-state decay in DeWitt-like and Everett-like versions of quantum mechanics

2022/01/10 by Jon Geist, Geist, Jon
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2201.03515

28 pages, 4 figures

arxiv created 2022/01/10 · arxiv updated 2022/01/11

Abstract

Simulations of the observed transition rate (decay rate) versus time for excited-state decay in Everett's relative-state formulation of quantum mechanics and DeWitt-like extension of Everett's formulation are described. It is shown that Everett's formalism is not general enough to describe excited-state decay, and that tritium lifetime measurements rule out all plausible DeWitt-like extensions. Furthermore, comparison of lifetime measurements and first-principles calculations of excited electronic states of simple atoms limit Everett-like extensions to a small effect for these atoms.

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