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First of all, it is indeed correct to model decoherence the system has to interact with what is called the "environment". Basically you have a joint CLOSED (unitary) evolution of system+environment, after which you discard the environment (technically called a partial trace), and you are left with the state of the system. Your "observer" can be taken as part ...

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If your electron is in a pure state then it's an eigenfunction, $\psi_e$, of the Hamiltonian describing it, $H_e$. The measuring system will also, in principle at least, be described by some wavefunction, $\psi_m$. If the two don't interact then the total wavefunction will just be a product: $$\Psi = \psi_e\psi_m$$ and the system won't change with time. ...

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When you measure the position of an electron that is in a pure energy state, what happens the energy becomes non-deterministic. An electron in a pure energy state is in a bound state. To "measure it" you have to excite it or , if it is in an already excited state measure the photon of its deexcitation. You cannot measure its position, while bound, to ...

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If you're looking for a general solution to the schrodinger equation then yes, it is possible for the atom to be in a superposition of energy states. This does not violate conservation of energy. Can you see why? It is a subtle point. To start you off -- how do you measure the position of the electron in the first place? You must hit it with something. This ...

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One could look at the two slit experiment and the interference pattern as a 4 dimensional event. So if the event was run for say 5 minutes, it would be a single 5 minute 4 dimensional event. However, if we detected the photons passing through the slits, or detect them just before they reach the screen, then each of these detections is an event in itself, ...

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You have fallen prey to the same confusion that many people have with regards to the wave/particle duality: The quantum objects that constitute our world are neither waves nor classical particles, and it is an error to believe that electrons/photons/whatever can "propagate as a wave" in one moment and "behave like a particle" in the next. The quantum ...

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Erasing the results of a quantum mechanical measurement has the cost in free energy required by Landauer's principle, see: http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0301076.

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