English

Extending Heisenberg's measurement--disturbance relation to the twin-slit case

Quantum Physics 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

Heisenberg's position-measurement--momentum-disturbance relation is derivable from the uncertainty relation σ(q)σ(p)/2\sigma(q)\sigma(p) \geq \hbar/2 only for the case when the particle is initially in a momentum eigenstate. Here I derive a new measurement--disturbance relation which applies when the particle is prepared in a twin-slit superposition and the measurement can determine at which slit the particle is present. The relation is d×Δp2/πd \times \Delta p \geq 2\hbar/\pi, where dd is the slit separation and Δp=DM(Pf,Pi)\Delta p=D_{M}(P_{f},P_{i}) is the Monge distance between the initial Pi(p)P_{i}(p) and final Pf(p)P_{f}(p) momentum distributions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0210065,
  title  = {Extending Heisenberg's measurement--disturbance relation to the twin-slit case},
  author = {H. M. Wiseman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0210065},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

10 pages, no figures. Begins by discussing Heisenberg's measurement-disturbance relation. Quotes from Heisenberg's works show that [contrary to the impression gained from the recent critique by M. Ozawa (quant-ph/0210044)] Heisenberg (at least in 1930) was careful in restricting the situation for which his measurement-disturbance relation could be derived from the uncertainty relation