Part IX: Quantum Phenomena

The Observations

Quantum systems exhibit superposition—existing in multiple states until measured. Measurement appears to "collapse" the wavefunction to a definite outcome. Entangled particles show correlations that cannot be explained by local hidden variables, seemingly communicating instantaneously across any distance. Particles tunnel through barriers they classically cannot surmount.

The Standard Interpretation

Quantum mechanics describes these phenomena mathematically with extraordinary precision but offers contested interpretations of what is "really happening." The measurement problem—why and how observation collapses superposition—remains unresolved. Entanglement is described as "spooky action at a distance," with correlations that violate Bell inequalities proving they cannot arise from local hidden variables.

The PSK Interpretation: Measurement as State Sharing

PSK proposes that measurement is not mysterious observation from outside a system but state sharing between matter. When you measure a quantum system, your measuring apparatus—which is also matter traversing densification—couples with the system and equilibrates to a shared configuration.

Consider how we measure anything. A balance beam measures mass by sharing gravitational state—the sample’s density gradient interacts with the beam’s atomic binding. A thermometer measures temperature by equilibrating with the sample—literally joining its temperature trajectory. A quantum detector measures a qubit by sharing state with it.

There is no mysterious "collapse." There is equilibration—the same least-energy resolution that governs heat flow and toothpaste tubes. The qubit and detector are both matter traversing densification. When they couple, they must find a common geometric configuration. The "measurement outcome" is simply what configuration they settled into.

The observer is not special. Consciousness is irrelevant. The detector shares state with the qubit whether or not a human examines the readout.

Entanglement as Shared Past Contiguity

Entangled particles are particles that share state because they share past contiguity—they were geometrically unified before voids emerged between them. The correlation is not transmitted; it is retained from when they were the same matter.

When you measure entangled particle A:

(1) A and B share state from past contiguity. (2) Your detector shares state with A (measurement). (3) Now your detector, A, and B are all in shared state relationship.

The "spooky action" is not action at all. Nothing traveled from A to B. No signal, no influence, no faster-than-light communication. B’s state was never independent of A’s—they have been sharing state since their contiguity. When you join that state-sharing relationship by measuring A, you discover a correlation that was already geometrically established.

Bell inequality violations are not evidence of spooky physics. They are evidence that past contiguity creates correlations that cannot be explained by classical local hidden variables—because the correlation is not local in present space. It is local in past density states, where the particles were contiguous.

Quantum Tunneling

In standard quantum mechanics, tunneling is probabilistic barrier penetration—a particle appearing on the far side of an energy barrier it classically cannot cross.

In PSK, the particle was never "on one side" needing to cross to the other. The barrier is a spatial construct in the present density state. But in a past (sparser) density state, the spatial separation constituting the barrier did not exist or was configured differently. The particle’s state mapping includes that past contiguity. Tunneling is the manifestation of causal connection through a density state where the barrier geometry did not apply.

Superposition

Superposition may not be "particle in multiple states simultaneously." Before state-sharing with a detector, there is no shared reference frame to define a discrete outcome. Superposition is the absence of state-sharing, not the presence of multiple simultaneous states.

The wavefunction, in this view, may be a mathematical description of temporal state mapping—the causal structure inherited from past contiguity—rather than a probability amplitude for finding a particle "somewhere."

Delayed Choice

In delayed-choice experiments, the decision of whether to observe which-path information is made after the particle has "passed through" the slits. Standard quantum mechanics interprets this as the future measurement affecting past behavior.

PSK dissolves the paradox. There is no particle that "passed through" at an earlier time. The state-mapping relationship between source and detector is established through the entire geometric structure, which includes the future detector configuration. The "choice" of detector setup determines which geometric channel structure exists, and state-mapping occurs through that structure.

There is no retrocausality. The state-mapping is not a process that happened and then is retroactively changed. It is a geometric relationship across the density-state structure, which includes all the matter configurations (source, slits, detectors) as they exist.

Decoherence

Environmental decoherence—the loss of interference through interaction with many particles—has a natural PSK interpretation. When the state-mapping channel interacts with environmental matter, it shares state with that matter. Each such interaction adds participants to the state-sharing relationship.

The concordance/discordance relationship between channels becomes diluted across many state-sharing connections. The clean two-channel interference is replaced by a complex multi-channel structure with effectively random phase relationships. The interference pattern washes out.

This is not wavefunction collapse. It is geometric complexity: too many state-sharing relationships to maintain coherent channel structure.