English

Physical origins and limitations of canonical quantum measurement behavior

Quantum Physics 2025-10-28 v3

Abstract

I review and augment my work of the last few years on the physical origins and limitations of canonical quantum measurement behavior. Central to this work is a detailed analysis of the microstructure of real measurement devices. Particular attention is paid to the Mott problem, which addresses a simpler version of canonical quantum measurement behavior: It asks why an alpha particle emitted in a nuclear decay produces one and only one track in a cloud chamber. My analysis - entirely consistent with unitarity - leads to an emergent, approximate Born rule supported by experiment, with possible breakdown at very small probability density. I argue that a similar picture applies to other measurement scenarios, including Geiger counters, the Stern-Gerlach experiment and superconducting qubits.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.00716,
  title  = {Physical origins and limitations of canonical quantum measurement behavior},
  author = {Jonathan F. Schonfeld},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.00716},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

To be published in Kragujevac Journal of Science. 9/7/25 updated references and clarified some language. 10/26/25 added a reference and accompanying text