Thanks for your explanation. I did have some further questions, but having read cavediver's response I realise they're rather pointless
.
However, I would like to help in your attempt to explain the reality of Zeno freezing. So here's my five cents worth.
I guess most of us think we understand the first part of your description:
I will ... consider the case of an atom on its own which starts in a state of having a 50/50 chance of decaying or not decaying.
I'll write the quantum state of the atom in the following form:
(a,b)
Where:
a=current chance of being mesured as decayed.
b=current chance of being measured as not decayed.
So when we start off the atom is in the state (50,50).
I make a measurement to see if the atom decayed. Let's say I find the atom is not decayed, so the state right after measurement is:
(0,100)
Obviously, because I've measured it to be not decayed it has 100% of being not decayed when I measure it.
This doesn't look any different from the case of a tossed coin, having a 50/50 chance of being heads or tails before you've thrown it, and 100% probability of being one or the other once you've tossed it and taken a look. But your next sentence seems to have no analogy in a classical setting:
Then I leave my equipment and stop measuring the atom. Over time the probability returns to 50/50.
So over a time of about a tenth of a second, the following happens to the state of the particle:
(0,100) -> (10,90) -> (20,80) -> (30,70) -> (40,60) -> (50,50).
It sounds to the uninitiated as though the probabilities describe some property or properties of the atom, rather than being statistical effects as they would be in the case of a tossed coin. So my first question is:
Is the state (10,90) a
real state of the atom? This question probably appears naive to you and cavediver, but I think understanding what you mean by the state (10,90) is kind of essential for us non-physicists.
P.S. What do you mean in your later post by 'Zeno freezing is an aspect of ... measurement acting as a projector down onto eigenkets'. That sounds like a beginning of an explanation. (Although I'm sure making me understand what an
eigenket is will probably try your patience
).
'I can't even fit all my wife's clothes into a suitcase for travelling. So you want me to believe we're going to put all of the planets and stars and everything into a sandwich bag?' - q3psycho on the Big Bang