Tests for randomness of spontaneous quantum decay

Silverman, Mark P.; Strange, Wayne; Silverman, Chris; Lipscombe, Trevor Davis

doi:10.1103/physreva.61.042106

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although it is almost universally assumed that nuclear decays are random, experimental tests of this assumption are relatively scant (Anderson and Spangler 1973;Silverman et al 1999;Silverman et al 2000). In the course of designing an appropriate experiment based on the GRIP formalism, we came upon a paper by Alburger et al (1986) which revealed an unexpected annual variation in the decay rates of 32 Si and 36 Cl (see Sect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time-Dependent Nuclear Decay Parameters: New Evidence for New Forces?

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents an overview of recent research dealing with the question of whether nuclear decay rates (or half-lives) are time-independent constants of nature, as opposed to being parameters which can be altered by an external perturbation. If the latter is the case, this may imply the existence of some new interaction(s) which would be responsible for any observed time variation. Interest in this question has been renewed recently by evidence for a correlation between nuclear decay rates and Earth-Sun distance, and by the observation of a dip in the decay rate for 54 Mn coincident in time with the solar flare of 2006 December 13. We discuss these observations in detail, along with other hints in the literature for time-varying decay parameters, in the framework of a general phenomenology that we develop. One consequence of this phenomenology is that it is possible for different experimental groups to infer discrepant (yet technically correct) results for a half-life depending on where and how their data were taken and analyzed. A considerable amount of attention is devoted to possible mechanisms which might give rise to the reported effects, including fluctuations in the flux of solar neutrinos, and possible variations in the magnitudes of fundamental parameters, such as the fine structure constant and the electron-to-proton mass ratio. We also discuss ongoing and future experiments, along with some implications of our work for cancer treatments, 14 C dating, and for the possibility of detecting the relic neutrino background.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time-Dependent Nuclear Decay Parameters: New Evidence for New Forces?

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The objectively random outcomes from measurements of a superposition of eigenstates have been proposed as an unbiased physical source for generating random numbers [4]. Thus far, experimental tests have found no deviation from randomness for sequences generated using quantum collapse [5][6][7]. However, despite some limited theoretical constraints on computability of quantum measurement outcomes [8], the inherently probabilistic nature of quantum collapse remains a postulate; for a derivation of collapse probabilities without appealing to Born rule see [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum collapse and the second law of thermodynamics

Hormoz

2013

Phys. Rev. E

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A heat engine undergoes a cyclic operation while in equilibrium with the net result of conversion of heat into work. Quantum effects such as superposition of states can improve an engine's efficiency by breaking detailed balance, but this improvement comes at a cost due to excess entropy generated from collapse of superpositions on measurement. We quantify these competing facets for a quantum ratchet comprised of an ensemble of pairs of interacting two-level atoms. We suggest that the measurement postulate of quantum mechanics is intricately connected to the second law of thermodynamics. More precisely, if quantum collapse is not inherently random, then the second law of thermodynamics can be violated. Our results challenge the conventional approach of simply quantifying quantum correlations as a thermodynamic work deficit.

show abstract

“…Although developed initially for testing quality control in manufacturing, exclusive runs and up-down runs have been employed in analysis of a variety of experiments to test the fundamental prediction of quantum mechanics that transitions between quantum states occur randomly [6,7]. A problematic issue in the counting of exclusive or up-down runs is that the length of a run can be changed by future events.…”

Section: Runs Tests For Non-randomnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…to order 6 s . Recall that the powers of s designate the number of trials, and the powers of z designate the number of recurrences of runs of length 3.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Procedures for Calculating the Probabilities of Recurrent Runs

Silverman¹

2014

OJS

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Run count statistics serve a central role in tests of non-randomness of stochastic processes of interest to a wide range of disciplines within the physical sciences, social sciences, business and finance, and other endeavors involving intrinsic uncertainty. To carry out such tests, it is often necessary to calculate two kinds of run count probabilities: 1) the probability that a certain number of trials results in a specified multiple occurrence of an event, or 2) the probability that a specified number of occurrences of an event take place within a fixed number of trials. The use of appropriate generating functions provides a systematic procedure for obtaining the distribution functions of these probabilities. This paper examines relationships among the generating functions applicable to recurrent runs and discusses methods, employing symbolic mathematical software, for implementing numerical extraction of probabilities. In addition, the asymptotic form of the cumulative distribution function is derived, which allows accurate runs statistics to be obtained for sequences of trials so large that computation times for extraction of this information from the generating functions could be impractically long.

show abstract

Tests for randomness of spontaneous quantum decay

Cited by 22 publications

References 10 publications

Time-Dependent Nuclear Decay Parameters: New Evidence for New Forces?

Time-Dependent Nuclear Decay Parameters: New Evidence for New Forces?

Quantum collapse and the second law of thermodynamics

Numerical Procedures for Calculating the Probabilities of Recurrent Runs

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About