All electrons are identical. Transposition of two of them multiplies the wave function by -1. All electrons in the Universe contribute equally to my body. That is not a problem.
Let a new electron is born by the decay of a muon together with a pair of neutrinos. Somewhere very far, in New York. It must at the same moment be antisymmetric to all other electrons in the Universe. But how does it know? Does muon contain that information.
Please, let me know if people have pondered on this.
> let me know if people have pondered on this
I have, in a slightly different setting -- related to the Quantum Zeno Effect. Could a newborn particle have a longer lifetime than the old crap? How does that square with the absolute identity of quantum particles? A master student student (Marie Drangfelt) of mine and I worked out some theoretically interesting results in a simple model, which has never been published. I like to call it the Drangfelt effect. Since I always work in the second quantized language, the (anti-)symmetrization of wave functions is never an issue. To me, that is a red herring!
The fallacy of the reasoning seems to be in an event. I quantum mechanics, events never happen. The wave function is always a superposition of a muon and an electron. And that electron is always antisymmetric to all other electrons. Quantum mechanics is the realm of evolution.
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