Related papers: Solution to the measurement problem within linear,…
This paper proposes an experiment designed to distinguish between competing interpretations of quantum mechanics: those that involve wave function collapse and those that assume purely unitary evolution. The experiment tests whether an…
Entangled states are in conflict with a general physical principle which expresses that a composite entity exists if and only if its components also exist, and the hypothesis that pure states represent the actuality of a physical entity,…
Experimental determination of an unknown quantum state usually requires several incompatible measurements. However, it is also possible to determine the full quantum state from a single, repeated measurement. For this purpose, the quantum…
A long-standing quantum-mechanical puzzle is whether the collapse of the wave function is a real physical process or simply an epiphenomenon. This puzzle lies at the heart of the measurement problem. One way to choose between the…
The measurement postulate of quantum theory stands in conflict with the laws of thermodynamics and has evoked debate regarding what actually constitutes a measurement. With the help of modern quantum statistical mechanics, we take the first…
Quantum mechanics is derived from the principle that the universe contain as much variety as possible, in the sense of maximizing the distinctiveness of each subsystem. The quantum state of a microscopic system is defined to correspond to…
A complete apparatus is defined as reacting to every state of the measured system. Standard quantum mechanics of indistinguishable particles is shown to imply that apparatuses must be incomplete or else they would be drowned out by noise.…
Decompositions of the world into systems have typically been regarded as arbitrary extra-theoretical assumptions in discussions of quantum measurement. One can instead regard decompositions as part of the theory, and ask what conditions…
The paper describes a solution to the problem of quantum measurement that has been proposed recently. The literal understanding of the basic rule of quantum mechanics on identical particles violates the cluster separation principle and so…
A simple way, accessible to undergraduates, is given to understand measurements in quantum mechanics. The ensemble interpretation of quantum mechanics is natural and provides this simple access to the measurement problem. This paper…
Two thought experiments are analyzed, revealing that the quantum state of the universe does not contain definitive evidence of the wavefunction collapse. The first thought experiment shows that unitary quantum evolution alone can account…
Quantum measurements are our eyes to the quantum systems consisting of a multitude of microscopic degrees of freedom. However, the intrinsic uncertainty of quantum measurements and the exponentially large Hilbert space pose natural barriers…
Given the state of a quantum system, one can calculate the expectation value of any observable of the system. However, the inverse problem of determining the state by performing different measurements is not a trivial task. In various…
By imposing system-observer symmetry on the von Neumann description of measurement, it is shown that the quantum measurement problem is structurally equivalent to a familiar reverse-engineering problem: that of describing the behavior of an…
The topic of measurement in relativistic quantum field theory is addressed in this article. Some of the long standing problems of this subject are highlighted, including the incompatibility of an instantaneous ``collapse of the…
The entangled Schrodinger cat state obtained immediately upon measurement of a superposed two-state quantum system is often considered paradoxical because it appears to predict two macroscopically different outcomes, such as an alive and…
The measurement problem is seen as an ambiguity of quantum mechanics, or, beyond that, as a contradiction within the theory: Quantum mechanics offers two conflicting descriptions of the Wigner's-friend experiment. As we argue in this note…
A geometric approach to quantum mechanics with unitary evolution and non-unitary collapse processes is developed. In this approach the Schrodinger evolution of a quantum system is a geodesic motion on the space of states of the system…
Measurement is a fundamental notion in the usual approximate quantum mechanics of measured subsystems. Probabilities are predicted for the outcomes of measurements. State vectors evolve unitarily in between measurements and by reduction of…
The quantum measurement problem considered for measuring system (MS) consist of measured state S (particle), detector D and information processing device (observer) O. It's shown that O states selfreference structure results in principal…