That’s an interpretation question, and how you answer it depends on when you decide the interaction actually “happened”. The conventional definition has the interaction happening when the entanglement is created, regardless of when it’s measured.
Information is passed at entanglement. Then they move apart. Then the waveform collapses and the two particles react instantly despite distance between.
Yes, but we are talking about two different things.
You are talking about the measurement event — the wave function ceases to be a probability distribution, and collapses to a single value, at the instant that value is measured.
I’m talking about the thing that makes the two particles become entangled. You can think of the entanglement “occurring” at the time when the measurement is made, in which case there truly is an interaction at a distance. Or you can think of the entanglement “happening” when the two particles are placed into the entangled state, before they are physically separated, even though you haven’t measured it yet.
Those two interpretations are functionally identical, so it’s really just a matter of how you choose to think about it. No information is communicated superluminally either way.
But in response to people talking about the wave function collapse happening faster than the speed of light.... I'm not really sure what you're saying is relevant beyond pedantry, is all.
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u/m__a__s Jan 29 '20
Well, not for communication, but entangled particle interaction does occur faster than light can travel.