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Re: Entropy, Objectivity, and Timescales



James says:

Take the initial quantum state, and propagate it with the Schrodinger
eq. until there is a non-zero probability of finding the system in each
state considered to be accessible. Does that work for everyone?

No, doesn't work for me. Let's assume that our system is isolated,
and use a basis of stationary (definite-energy) states. Then the
Schrodinger equation predicts that only those states that appear
in the initial wavefunction (decomposed in this basis) will ever appear
in the wavefunction in the future. Thus, you can wait as long as you
like, but the number of "accessible" states (counted in this way) will
never increase.

-dan