The appearance of particle tracks in detectors
Mathematical Physics
2021-03-17 v1 math.MP
Quantum Physics
Abstract
The phenomenon that a quantum particle propagating in a detector, such as a Wilson cloud chamber, leaves a track close to a classical trajectory is analyzed. We introduce an idealized quantum-mechanical model of a charged particle that is periodically illuminated by pulses of laser light resulting in repeated indirect measurements of the approximate position of the particle. For this model we present a mathematically rigorous analysis of the appearance of particle tracks, assuming that the Hamiltonian of the particle is quadratic in the position- and momentum operators, as for a freely moving particle or a harmonic oscillator.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2007.00785,
title = {The appearance of particle tracks in detectors},
author = {Miguel Ballesteros and Tristan Benoist and Martin Fraas and Jürg Fröhlich},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.00785},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
40 pages