Why Quantum Probability is Different?

You may have heard that quantum theory is a theory of possibilities. Likelihood comes in many cases in everyday life. However, the probabilities in the quantum world reveal a very different and strange conception of reality from the concept of classical probability we are familiar with.

In the classical sense, the concept of probability arises from our lack of information about the existence states of objects. For example, assume that you have two closed boxes in front of you to select and open one, and that you have a nice gift waiting for you in one of these boxes. The chance to catch the gift is 50%. The reason why you face this possibility is that you do not know which of the boxes is the gift. This lack of information about the existence of the target brings the uncertainty about how the game will end. If you try to play the same game with 4 closed boxes, your chances of catching the gift fall to 25% this time. Your ignorance is increased because of the possibility of changing the probability and the chance of catching the gift. If you do not know which of the 2 boxes is the gift before, you will not know which of the 4 boxes is the gift. So whatever the chances of winning are low, what motivates you to play these games? The answer is simple; You do not know which box it is, you can not see the gift at the moment, and if you can not figure it out, the factor that motivates you is that you know that you are in the presence of a gift from one of the closed boxes. Because in classical sense probability is a concept that arises from our ignorance of an object that is already in existence. In addition to the classic possibility, there is always a physical object directly related to this possibility. However, when we look at the quantum probability, we see that it is much different.

Let's assume that the gift waiting for you in one of the boxes in order to explain the concept is an electron this time. It is an interesting idea to look at the work of quantum mechanics before giving up the electron in the box as a gift for the wedding anniversary anniversary. Unlike classical probability, there is no object in quantum theory, which corresponds to this probability as well as probability. The only thing that exists is probability. This interesting truth is one of the things that confuse the minds and make quantum mechanics a very strange theory. "You do not know what he's doing unless you look at an electron." "What is it? ... You can never imagine what I'm doing unless you look at me." However, if you notice, in classical possibilities, even if you open the boxes, the gift is still in the form of a physical object and we said that it is in someone in a box. But in the quantum world, there is no electron in one of the boxes unless you open and measure it. Because, in quantum space, particles do not have certainty-like properties such as position or momentum in the classical sense. Instead, when you try to determine position or momentum, there is a "quantum probability wave" of the totality of possibilities, or technically speaking, of knowledge of what you are likely to achieve.

There are some misunderstandings at this point. The presence of a probabilistic wave of electrons in boxes does not mean that the particle electrons are in the same place in two places. According to the quantum theory, the interpretation that particles can be found in more than one place at the same time is not exactly true at this point. The same thing in more than one place is the quantum probability wave of particle. In any experiment to be done for this reason, the behavior of particles is manifested by the behavior of particles. However, this should not be understood as the particles turning into a wave in the material sense. So what is present in the boxes in the above example is the quantum probability wave that describes the potential of the electron as a particle. When you make a measurement by opening and detecting one of the boxes, the electron of the probability wave of the electron becomes a definite state, and the electron acquires its identity by particle identity from this point. You need to understand the difference between these two identities. For this reason, the box you open is empty, or full. If you come across an empty box, the electron is definitely in the other box. If you come across a full box, the other box is definitely empty. However, before making this determination, the electron is not present in the form of particles in any box. The possibilities and possibilities of electrons, which fill the boxes. "Knowledge is not a physical entity, but it is conceptual, how can you fill the box?" However, in the quantum space, before the existence of an electron in particle form, existence in the form of probability information is in essence. For this reason, the word of the famous quantum physicist James Jeans says that the universe looks as if it is a mass of information from a large machine.

Quantum mechanics the probability of particles in the Schrödinger wave equation given name is defined by a mathematical formula. When a measurement is made to determine the status of any particle that is hosted by one of the probability wave is observed as occurring probability of the particles. The root of the reality based on the possibility of the quantum world goes to the origin of the uncertainty of Heisenberg. As is the case with the concept of quantum probability, the concept of quantum uncertainty is also different from classical uncertainty. For example, imagine that you want to go to the art gallery and hang a table at home. Since your budget is limited, assume that you have decided to look at the prices first. You need to review the prices, it's because you do not have this information at first. So the price of the tablon you will buy is uncertain for you unless you look at the ethics on it. However, if you do not know the price of the table, it does not mean that the table does not have a particular price. If you do not know yet, the table has a definite price. But if you get the same table to buy at the auction in the auction, you encounter a different kind this time of uncertainty. This scenario is still uncertain in the price table for you, but this time the price of the reason for the uncertainty is that the table has not yet come into existence. Because the auction has not started yet. When the auction is finalized, the price will come out of the uncertainty and get a certain value. Quantum uncertainty is like this. The observation is that the resultant electron is like being a physical particle identity. For this reason, probability and uncertainty in the classical sense are subjective, whereas in the quantum world, probability and uncertainty are universal. This is something that differs from classical theories of quantum theory.

Source and attendance reading recommendation 

1) Arı, Vural. The Reality of the Universe to the Quantum. Istanbul Bilgi University Publications, 2015 

2) Rosenblum, Bruce and Kuttner, Fred. Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness, Oxford University Press, 2011 

3) Baggott, Jim. The Quantum Story: A History in 40 Moments, Oxford University Press, 2011.