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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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As experiments probe quantum phenomena ever more deeply, it becomes difficult to believe that there is anything other than pure, unitary, quantum time evolution. Without wave-function collapse, the physicist is left with the many-worlds interpretation as the source of quantum indeterminism. (I say "physicist" because I can't defend against all philosophical contortions.)
However, if one is willing to take a radical view of statistical mechanics, it is possible to have only unitary time evolution, and still have a single "world." I will explain just what that radical departure is and how one achieves quantum determinism. A basic assumption/explanation with be "special" microscopic states. Finally, I will describe an experimental test of these ideas that is well within the realm of feasibility.
