Quantum Mechanics

with the emphasis on wave-particle duality

and probably incorporating a random number generator

by D.T.C. Porthouse

This is the quantum mechanics measurement problem looked at from the point of view of computer simulation. This website contains a variety of QBasic programs which you can download and run. We must warn you at once that an exponential-time algorithm may be the best we can do, and this means that you are possibly looking at an esoteric subject.

You can find un-esoteric polynomial-time QBasic programs on other topics, such as relativity, gravity, the Van Allen Belt, the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability and the Von Karman vortex street. The relativistic flight simulator can be run in interpreted QBasic with QBasic installed as a viewer, or better still, in compiled object code with PKZIP installed in unzip-and-go mode.

E-mail: 100425.3501@compuserve.com

There is an experimental prediction which you may read about before looking at the rest of this website, which otherwise may be heavy going.

Dedication: In memory of David Bohm

The Copenhagen Interpretation is the easiest to understand: this website is a waste of time.

The theme of this website is going to be the EPR-complete computer simulation of quantum mechanics. The author has his own idea about how to proceed to do this, but is interested in alternative ideas. He is happy to provide links to other people's proposals.

Other people's proposals

The author may fail in his primary ambition, which is to produce the first computer simulation of wave-particle duality. Nevertheless, there should be lots of 'spin-off'. You may find this website interesting for the spin-off alone. There are a variety of BASIC programs which can be downloaded and run. There is plenty of new technology to look at. This website is both a department store and a book with moving pictures. Enjoy yourself.

This website is like a declaration of faith in technology. It shows off what the Internet and HTML can do. It teaches computer animation for physics, describing practical matters like frame buffers, real-time simulation and virtual-time simulation. Object-oriented programming is described. The use of a random number generator and a Vernam cipher is proposed. With all this technology, the problem of quantum mechanics is likely to succumb, at least for simple systems. We shall see.

- Click on this logo anywhere you see it to go to a page which will help you to navigate around this website.

The author's ideas - a brief introduction

'Obviously' a computer simulation of quantum mechanics must incorporate a random number generator if we are aiming to simulate random phenomena. The basic theme of this website is how to incorporate a random number generator. It is essentially a simple theme. Quantum mechanics and computer simulation may separately have a formidable reputation, but this website would not exist but for a single simple idea.

With a random number generator available, we also have the Vernam cipher available. We can then, without embarrassment, shift information at superluminal speed in our computer simulations. We will have to do this to deal with Bell's Theorem. The Vernam cipher is described in a text file which can be found below, though you may know about it anyway.

If you thought that 'nothing can travel faster than light' then you will have to think again. It is taken for granted in this website that superluminal communication between human beings is impossible. The proof that this is so relies upon the method of 'reductio ad absurdum', which assumes the validity of the Law of the Excluded Middle, which law is known to fail in quantum mechanics. There may be communications within quantum mechanics which can travel at superluminal speed, but which are useless for our purposes.

Click here for more comments on superluminal activity

Now that we are in the business of tachyonics, we notice that the Schroedinger equation and Maxwell's equation both have tachyonic degrees of freedom. We can go ahead and exploit these degrees of freedom without having to change these equations. If we did change these equations, then we would run into trouble at the level of matching the ensemble of computer simulations to the ensemble of experiments.

It is proposed that there are random tachyonic fluctuations in the solutions of the Schroedinger and Maxwell equations. The joint correlation of these fluctuations carries information at superluminal speed where this is required to violate Bell's Inequalities. The fluctuations are uncontrollable. They cannot be intercepted or eavesdropped upon since one of the fields is fermionic. We have here a natural Vernam cipher in operation. This is what our computer simulation should show.

We will still have to think about the question of the Relativity of Simultaneity, but we have now got rid of a couple of straitjackets, namely 'nothing can travel faster than light' and 'the Schroedinger equation is immutable'. There are a variety of theories which we can now pursue. The text files and BASIC programs which follow outline the author's ideas.

You are warned that for the quantum mechanical many-body problem, we may not be able to do any better than an exponential-time algorithm, assuming that we achieve anything at all. This is James Baugh's view.

Text files you can download

BASIC programs you can download

Please complain

if anything on this website appears not to be working. Some things the author is responsible for, but other things may be outside his control and not appreciated unless someone tells him. Some of the things on this site are experimental and need some feedback.

Computer Simulation of Quantum Mechanics - Porthouse

so you know you are still onsite.

For information on support for developing countries, click here.
This tells you about the 'Virtual Internet'.

The name of this file is QUANTUM.HTM

Click here to find out more about Baugh's Conjecture and exponential-time algorithms.

Advertisement: Click here to read about the author's recommended best practice on search engines.

(C) 1997 D.T.C. Porthouse

Most of this website is copyright and all rights are reserved. A few identified pages are not copyright in the public interest. For bona fide non-profit purposes of education and research, you have a licence to make copies of any page or program on this website.

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