Complementarity of representations in quantum mechanics
Quantum Physics
2007-05-23 v1 Mathematical Physics
math.MP
Abstract
We show that Bohr's principle of complementarity between position and momentum descriptions can be formulated rigorously as a claim about the existence of representations of the CCRs. In particular, in any representation where the position operator has eigenstates, there is no momentum operator, and vice versa. Equivalently, if there are nonzero projections corresponding to sharp position values, all spectral projections of the momentum operator map onto the zero element.
Cite
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0110102,
title = {Complementarity of representations in quantum mechanics},
author = {Hans Halvorson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0110102},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
14 pages, LaTeX