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Wigner Friend scenarios with non-invasive weak measurements

Quantum Physics 2020-12-08 v2

Abstract

Wigner Friend scenarios -- in which an external agent describes quantum mechanically a laboratory in which a Friend is making a measurement -- give rise to possible inconsistencies due to the ambiguous character of quantum measurements. In this work, we investigate Wigner Friend scenarios in which the external agents can probe in a non-invasive manner the dynamics inside the laboratories. We examine probes that can be very weakly coupled to the systems measured by the Friends, or to the pointers or environments inside the laboratories. These couplings, known as Weak Measurements, are asymptotically small and do not change the outcomes obtained by the Friends nor their probabilities. Within our scheme, we show that the weakly coupled probes indicate to the external agents how to obtain consistent predictions, irrespective of the possible inconsistencies of quantum measurement theory. These non-invasive couplings could be implemented with present-day technologies.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2008.09003,
  title  = {Wigner Friend scenarios with non-invasive weak measurements},
  author = {A. Matzkin and D. Sokolovski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2008.09003},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Slightly extended Discussion Section, as well as minor changes for improved readability. Similar to published version. To be published in PRA