# Life and Death in the Tails of the Wave Function

Wallace, David (2014) Life and Death in the Tails of the Wave Function. [Preprint]

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## Abstract

It seems to be widely assumed that the only effect of the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber (GRW') dynamical collapse mechanism on the tails' of the wavefunction (that is, the components of superpositions on which the collapse is \emph{not}
centred) is to reduce their weight. In consequence it seems to be generally accepted that the tails behave exactly as do the various branches in the Everett interpretation except
for their much lower weight.

These assumptions are demonstrably inaccurate: the collapse mechanism has substantial and detectable effects within the tails. The relevance of this misconception for the dynamical-collapse theories is debatable, though.

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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Wallace, David
Keywords: Dynamical Collapse, GRW, Tails Problem
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Depositing User: David Wallace
Date Deposited: 19 Jul 2014 15:31
Item ID: 10881
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Quantum Mechanics
Date: July 2014
URI: http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10881