English

``Weighing'' a closed system and the time-energy uncertainty principle

Quantum Physics 2009-01-23 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

A gedanken-experiment is proposed for `weighing'' the total mass of a closed system from within the system. We prove that for an internal observer the time τ\tau, required to measure the total energy with accuracy ΔE\Delta E, is bounded according to τΔE>\tau \Delta E >\hbar . This time-energy uncertainty principle for a closed system follows from the measurement back-reaction on the system. We generally examine what other conserved observables are in principle measurable within a closed system and what are the corresponding uncertainty relations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/9906030,
  title  = {``Weighing'' a closed system and the time-energy uncertainty principle},
  author = {Yakir Aharonov and Benni Reznik},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/9906030},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

8 pages

R2 v1 2026-07-22T20:06:24.398Z