Quantum collapse, local conservation of charge, and possible experimental consequences

Abstract We investigate the possibility that idealized quantum state-reduction processes may produce a local violation of charge conservation. If this occurs, the corresponding electromagnetic fields cannot be consistently described within Maxwell electrodynamics, and a natural alternative is provided by Aharonov–Bohm electrodynamics, which reduces to Maxwell theory when local charge conservation holds, but remains compatible with non-conserved sources. Within this framework, we first analyze how state reduction may generate non-conserved local currents, including statistically compensated cases and biased tunneling configurations with persistent average current. We then study the interaction of gauge waves with fermionic and bosonic quantum systems, the latter being described by a modified Schrödinger equation previously proposed for boson matter. As an application, we discuss the interaction of gauge waves with superconductors and show that they can effectively shield such waves. Finally, we present experimental proposals based on inverse-biased diodes and estimate the expected detector response.