Article
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Causal Intuition and Delayed-Choice Experiments
Version 1
: Received: 25 November 2020 / Approved: 26 November 2020 / Online: 26 November 2020 (07:34:49 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Heaney, M.B. Causal Intuition and Delayed-Choice Experiments. Entropy 2021, 23, 23. Heaney, M.B. Causal Intuition and Delayed-Choice Experiments. Entropy 2021, 23, 23.
Abstract
The conventional explanation of delayed-choice experiments seems to violate our causal intuition. This apparent violation is caused by a misinterpretation of the conventional formulation of quantum mechanics. I reanalyze these experiments using advanced and time-symmetric formulations of quantum mechanics. All three formulations give the same experimental predictions, but the advanced and time-symmetric formulations violate our causal intuition that effects only happen after causes. I explore reasons why our causal intuition may be wrong at the quantum level. I also suggest how conventional causation might be recovered in the classical limit, and speculate on cosmological boundary conditions.
Keywords
delayed-choice; causality; retrocausality; advanced action; numerical simulation
Subject
Physical Sciences, Acoustics
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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