A model of wave function collapse in a quantum measurement of spin as the Schroedinger equation solution of a system with a simple harmonic oscillator in a bath

Abstract: We present a set of exact system solutions to a model we developed to study wave function collapse in the quantum spin measurement process. Specifically, we calculated the wave function evolution for a simple harmonic oscillator of spin \frac{1}{2}, with its magnetic moment in interaction with a magnetic field, coupled to an environment that is a bath of harmonic oscillators. The system's time evolution is described by the direct product of two independent Hilbert spaces: one that is defined by an effective Hamiltonian, which represents a damped simple harmonic oscillator with its potential well divided into two, based on the spin and the other that represents the effect of the bath, i.e., the Brownian motion. The initial states of this set of wave functions form an orthonormal basis, defined as the eigenstates of the system. If the system is initially in one of these states, the final result is predetermined, i.e., the measurement is deterministic. If the bath is initially in the ground state,and the wave function is initially a wave packet at the origin, it collapses into one of the two potential wells depending on the initial spin. If the initial spin is a vector in the Bloch sphere not parallel to the magnetic field, the final distribution among the two potential wells is given by the Born rule applied to the initial spin state with the well-known ground state width. Hence, the result is also predetermined. We discuss its implications to the Bell theorem[1]. We end with a summary of the implications for the understanding of the statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics.