Could randomness in nature be explained by Chaos theory?

[vlaiv]

Here is intriguing thought:

We have a quantum system and that system upon "measurement" randomly "decides" on a new state. Decoherence theory rather well explains how weird superposition states go away and we are left with system that is in pure state. However decoherence does not explain how eigenstate is reached - and we assume it is random choice out of possible eigenstates.

What if decoherence process is being chaotic - meaning that while system is decohering any small change in any of the parameters has vastly different outcome which we perceive to be random? It is easy to see that there will always be very small change in parameters - entanglement with environment that is "buzzing" with activity, and while in principle we can know the state of environment in practice it's next to impossible.

Yes, I know, this line of reasoning is going to bring us back to determinism, but I just wonder if at all could be possible, and if it is a possibility how could we test this?

[andrew s]

Not ever thought along these lines. The inverse problem is studied in Quantum Chaos but again I have not studied it.

My first thoughts would be that in QM we don't have evolving states as such but an evolving probability distribution for the system as a whole.

Clearly a prepared state will have some uncertainty (e.g thermal broadening of a spectral line) but you are proposing something  deeper.

Will ponder more on this.

Regards Andrew 

[vlaiv]

56 minutes ago, andrew s said:

Not ever thought along these lines. The inverse problem is studied in Quantum Chaos but again I have not studied it.

My first thoughts would be that in QM we don't have evolving states as such but an evolving probability distribution for the system as a whole.

Clearly a prepared state will have some uncertainty (e.g thermal broadening of a spectral line) but you are proposing something  deeper.

Will ponder more on this.

Regards Andrew 

Ah, yes, I wondered myself about that and over time I've come to "accept" (maybe strong word since my knowledge of the topic is superficial) that state wave function is element of reality - not just useful tool to describe associated probabilities.

If you follow that sort of thinking then it is quite plausible that chaos type entanglement interactions could give rise to probabilities that we observe (and are based on state wave function - we simply "skipped" a step and went straight from wave function to probabilities). I've heard about concepts of "reversed"/"reflected" wave (going back in time) - but did not quite understand it. Within this type of reasoning it is "quite logical" - as there would be a sort of underlying determinism, scary thought I know, but not much scarier then random probabilities and pure chance

There are other fields that give hints of some sort of "determinism" - for example relativity and concept of "now" slice which gives rise to notion "all time all the time" - meaning future/present/past are equally "happening" at the same "time".