Related papers: Repeatable measurements and the collapse postulate
Irreversibility is often considered to characterize measurements in quantum mechanics. Fundamental problems with this characterization are addressed. First, whether a measurement is made in quantum mechanics is an arbitrary decision on the…
We show that long standing debates on the collapse and the role of the observer in quantum mechanics can be resolved experimentally via a nondistructive continuous monitoring of a single quantum system. An example of such a system, coupled…
It has been proposed that measurement in quantum mechanics results from spontaneous breaking of a symmetry of the measuring apparatus and could be a unitary process that preserves coherence. Viewed in this manner, it is argued,…
We present a new interpretation of the terms superposition, entanglement, and measurement that appear in quantum mechanics. We hypothesize that the structure of the wave function for a quantum system at the sub-Planck scale has a…
Ultimately, any explanation of quantum measurement must be extendable to relativistic quantum mechanics (RQM), since many precisely confirmed experimental results follow from quantum field theory (QFT), which is based on RQM. Certainly, the…
We show that the von Neumann--Lueders collapse rules in quantum mechanics always select the unique state that maximises the quantum relative entropy with respect to the premeasurement state, subject to the constraint that the…
The paper discuss the structure of quantum mechanics and uniqueness of its postulates. The Born rule for quantum probabilities is fixed by requirement of nonexistence of quantum telepathy. Von Neumann projection postulate describes the…
It is shown that no-collapse and collapse interpretations of quantum mechanics give equal object states (which predict everything that is observable) if one bases the relevant relations on the Von Neumann-L\"uders 'projection'. This…
It is demonstrated that the collapse of the wave function is equivalent to the continuity of measurement outcomes. The latter states that a second measurement has to result in the same outcome as the first measurement of the same observable…
It is argued that the three assumptions of quantum collapse, one photon-one count, and relativity of simultaneity cannot hold together: Nonlocal correlations can depend on the referential frames of the beam-splitters but not of the…
Masanes, Galley and M\"uller [1] argue that the measurement postulates of non-relativistic quantum mechanics follow from the structural postulates together with an assumption they call the "possibility of state estimation". Their argument…
The postulate of the collapse of the wave function stands between the microscopic, quantum world, and the macroscopic world. Because of this intermediate position, the collapse process cannot be examined with the formalism of the quantum…
Consideration of the von Neumann measurement process underlying interference experiments shows that the uncertainty in the incoming wave, responsible for its interference, translates during measurement into an uncertainty at the measuring…
Few things in physics have caused so much hand-wringing as von Neumann's collapse hypothesis. Unable to derive it mathematically, von Neumann attributed it to interaction with the observer's brain! Few physicists agreed, but tweaks of von…
The undoing of quantum measurements is discussed in the broader context of irreversibility in physics. We give explicit examples of how a wavefunction can be uncollapsed in two solid-state experimental set-ups. Wavefunction uncollapse shows…
It is argued that Feynman's rules for evaluating probabilities, combined with von Neumann's principle of psycho-physical parallelism, help avoid inconsistencies, often associated with quantum theory. The former allows one to assign…
We explain the collapse of the wavefunction with the notion that, in a measurement, the system observed nucleates a first order phase transition in the measuring device. The possible final states differ by the values of macroscopic…
The problem of measurement in quantum mechanics is that the quantum particle in the course of evolution, as described by the linear Schrodinger equation, exists in all of its possible states, but in measuring, the particle is always…
The problem of measurement in quantum mechanics is reanalyzed within a general, strictly probabilistic framework (without reduction postulate). Based on a novel comprehensive definition of measurement the natural emergence of objective…
The collapse of a quantum state can be understood as a mathematical way to construct a joint probability density even for operators that do not commute. We can formalize that construction as a non-commutative, non-associative collapse…