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Measurements in quantum mechanics

Henry Margenau
- 01 Sep 1963 - 
- Vol. 23, Iss: 3, pp 469-485
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TLDR
In this paper, a review of customary theories of the measurement process exposes certain conceptual and empirical difficulties, which arise in connection with the uncertainty principle, the projection postulate in its usual understanding, and in an attempt to formulate joint probabilities for noncommuting observables.
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This article is published in Annals of Physics.The article was published on 1963-09-01 and is currently open access. It has received 96 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Quantum process & Quantum probability.

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The statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics

TL;DR: The Statistical Interpretation of quantum theory is formulated for the purpose of providing a sound interpretation using a minimum of assumptions as discussed by the authors, and it is based on the assumption that the quantum state description applies only to an ensemble of similarly prepared systems, rather than supposing, as is often done, that it exhaustively represents an individual physical system.
Journal ArticleDOI

Colloquium : Understanding quantum weak values: Basics and applications

TL;DR: A pragmatic introduction to the weak value in terms of measurable quantities is presented in this paper, along with an explanation for how it can be determined in the laboratory and its application to three distinct experimental techniques is reviewed.
Repository

Bibliographic guide to the foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum information

TL;DR: A collection of references (papers, books, preprints, book reviews, Ph. D. thesis, patents, web sites, etc.), sorted alphabetically and classified by subject, on foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum information can be found in this article.
Journal ArticleDOI

A Conceptual Analysis of Quantum Zeno; Paradox, Measurement, and Experiment

TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that the quantum Zeno effect is a genuine result of quantum theory and current quantum measurement theory, independent of the projection postulate, and the effect is of very general nature and rests on analogous arguments to those involved in Bell's theories.
Journal ArticleDOI

The time of arrival in quantum mechanics II. The individual measurement

TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that the time at which a moving classical particle reaches a fixed space point can be measured with arbitrarily high precision by the use of a suitably conceived apparatus.
References
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Space-Time Approach to Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors formulated non-relativistic quantum mechanics in a different way and showed that the probability of an event which can happen in several different ways is the absolute square of a sum of complex contributions, one from each alternative way.
Book

Albert Einstein: philosopher-scientist

TL;DR: In this paper, the author describes the failure of classical mechanics and the rise of the electromagnetic field, the theory of relativity, and of the quanta, and the book is faced, page-by-page, with a translation by the noted Professor of Philosophy Paul Arthur Schilpp.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Theory of Positrons

TL;DR: In this article, the behavior of positrons and electrons in given external potentials, neglecting their mutual interaction, is analyzed by replacing the theory of holes by a reinterpretation of the solutions of the Dirac equation.
Book ChapterDOI

Physics and Philosophy

TL;DR: For the first half of the twentieth century, outside the totalitarian states, the most celebrated paragons have been Gandhi, Schweitzer, and Einstein; and of these the most influential as a thinker was clearly Albert Einstein this article.
Journal ArticleDOI

Mathematical Formulation of the Quantum Theory of Electromagnetic Interaction

TL;DR: In this article, a relation between the amplitude for a given process in an arbitrary unquantized potential and in a quantum electrodynamical field is established, which permits a simple general statement of the laws of quantum mechanics.
Frequently Asked Questions (13)
Q1. What are the contributions in "Measurements in quantum mechanics" ?

Venugopalan et al. this paper proposed an approach that employs the methods developed by several authors to analyse the quantum mechanics ofMeasurement in Quantum Mechanics: Decoherence and the Pointer Basis 

Thirdly, the model predicts previously unsuspected coherent magnetic complement of a newly coherent QSC formulation of the weak dispersion interaction between e-pairs, despite their spin-singlet coupling which should ( conventionally ) close out the possibility of any residual magnetic interaction. It remains to the future therefore to consider appropriate formulation of the ‘ equations of matter-wave motion ’ in which the QSC model provides its insights without requiring the assumption of the empirical phenomenon of particle mass. Thirdly, the model predicts previously unsuspected coherent magnetic complement of a newly coherent QSC formulation of the weak dispersion interaction between e-pairs, despite their spin-singlet coupling which should ( conventionally ) close out the possibility of any residual magnetic interaction. It remains to the future therefore to consider appropriate formulation of the ‘ equations of matter-wave motion ’ in which the QSC model provides its insights without requiring the assumption of the empirical phenomenon of particle mass. 

Using the Markovian Master equation for a harmonic oscillator coupled to a heat bath and the criterion of the predictability sieve Zurek argues that coherent states emerge as the preferred basis. 

In quantum information and quantum computation, entanglement is viewed as a resource for computing tasks that can be performed faster or in a more secure way than is classically possible and there are intensive experimental efforts to create entangled states in the labarotory. 

the coupling with the environmental degrees of freedom causes decoherence of the pure density matrix of the entangled state into a statistical mixture. 

In the literature, the preferred basis has been variously described as the one in which the final state density matrix becomes diagonal or that set of basis states which are characterized by maximum stability or a minimum increase in linear or statistical entropy, decided by a predictability sieve(Zurek et al. , 1993). 

This pure entangled state of the system and the apparatus is akin to a ’Schroödinger cat state’ which contains one-to-one correlations between the system and ’macroscopic’ apparatus states with all quantum coherences intact. 

The authors have seen that the environmental influence is crucial in not only destroying the quantum coherences, but also is selecting a special state or a preferred basis. 

the inclusion of environmental interaction has destroyed the quantum corelations (signified by the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix) and rendered the reduced system-apparatus combine into a statistical mixture. 

The Hamiltonian describing this model is:H = λσz + p22m + �zσz. (11)While the first two terms represent the self Hamiltonians of the system and apparatus, respectively, the last term is the interaction Hamiltonian. 

The random motion of the suspended particle can be statistically explained by taking into account its interaction with a large number of particles which constitute the reservoir of liquid molecules or the ’environment’. 

The density matrix for an initial system-apparatus state described by (14), evolving via the master equation (18) has the formρS+A = |a|2| ↑��↑ |ρ↑↑(z, z�, t) + |b|2| ↓��↓ |ρ↓↓(z, z�, t) + [ ab∗| ↑��↓ |ρ↑↓(z, z�, t) + a∗b| ↓��↑ |ρ↓↑(z, z�, t). ] e−αt3 . (19)Here the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix (last two terms) contain a multiplicative factor of the form e−αt3 which causes the decay of these terms to zero over a characteristic time making the density matrix diagonal in spin space. 

In particular, it is important to look at systems like the harmonic oscillator apparatus model which is fairly generic and exact solutions make it an interesting candidate to explore experimentally in the context of decoherence and quantum measurements.