English

Quasi-determinism of weak measurement statistics: Laplace's demon's quantum cousin

Quantum Physics 2013-03-04 v1 History and Philosophy of Physics

Abstract

Weak measurements can provide a complete characterization of post-selected ensembles, including the uncertainties of observables. Interestingly, the average uncertainties for pure initial and final states are always zero, suggesting the kind of complete knowledge that would allow a knowledge of past, presence and future in the sense of Laplace's demon. However, the quantum version actually describes cancellations of positive and negative uncertainties made possible by the strangeness of weak values. In this paper, I take a closer look at the relation between statistics and causality in quantum mechanics, in an attempt to recover the traces of classical determinism in the statistical relations of quantum measurement outcomes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1005.0654,
  title  = {Quasi-determinism of weak measurement statistics: Laplace's demon's quantum cousin},
  author = {Holger F. Hofmann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.0654},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

4 pages, contribution to the proceedings of QIT22 held May 10-11 2010 in Osaka