Collapse as Category Error: Why Wave Function Collapse Cannot Be a Spacetime Event (v2.0) This paper argues that the demand for wave function collapse to be a spacetime-localised physical event constitutes a category error in relativistic quantum mechanics. In scenarios involving spacelike-separated measurements on entangled systems, different inertial frames assign different temporal orderings to measurement events. Treating collapse as a physical event with a definite time and place therefore requires a preferred foliation of spacetime, in violation of Lorentz covariance. The paper shows that all empirically accessible quantities—local measurement outcomes and their joint probability distributions—are Lorentz-invariant and can be derived without invoking any spacetime collapse event. “Collapse” is instead most coherently understood as a relational, non-dynamical re-description of correlation structure conditioned on local measurement context. The contribution is strictly one of conceptual clarification and structural constraint analysis. The paper does not propose a new interpretation of quantum mechanics, introduce dynamical collapse models, or claim to resolve the measurement problem. Version 2.0 extends the analysis with: (i) a structured evaluation matrix (HATI-QM) for comparing interpretational frameworks against Lorentz covariance and epistemic transparency; (ii) an explicit falsifiability architecture (“semantic kill-switch”); and (iii) a formal mapping to the Ecological Homeostasis framework for distributed adaptive systems, identifying collapse localisation as an instance of a broader “pathological localisation” error. The paper is intended for researchers in quantum foundations, philosophy of physics, and information-theoretic approaches to quantum theory.
John Richard Smith (Mon,) studied this question.