Related papers: Student difficulties with the probability distribu…
We describe a study focusing on students' and faculty members' reasoning about problems of differing cognitive complexity related to the double-slit experiment (DSE) with single particles. In the first phase of the study, students in…
Very little is known about how the nature of expertise in introductory and advanced courses compares in knowledge-rich domains such as physics. We develop a framework to compare the similarities and differences between learning and patterns…
The Dirac delta function is a standard mathematical tool used in multiple topical areas in the undergraduate physics curriculum. While Dirac delta functions are usually introduced in order to simplify a problem mathematically, students…
Although time measurements are routinely performed in laboratories, their theoretical description is still an open problem. Correspondingly, the status of the energy-time uncertainty relation is unsettled. In the first part of this work the…
Consider a statistical model with an epistemic restriction such that, unlike in classical mechanics, the allowed distribution of positions is fundamentally restricted by the form of an underlying momentum field. Assume an agent (observer)…
A "geometric" intepretation of probability is proposed, modelled on the treatment of tense in 4-dimensional spacetime. It is applied to Everett's approach to quantum mechanics, as formulated in terms of consistent histories. Standard…
Time measurements are routinely preformed in laboratories, nevertheless their theoretical account presents some difficulties and for actual experiments an approximate, semiclassical expression is always used. Here, we will discuss their…
We describe an operational scheme for determining both the position and momentum distributions in a large class of quantum states, together with an experimental implementation.
The physics of high-energy collider experiments asks for delicate comparisons between theoretical predictions and experimental data. Signals and potential backgrounds for new physics have to be predicted at sufficient accuracy. The accuracy…
Students' difficulties in quantum mechanics may be the result of unproductive framing rather than a fundamental inability to solve the problems or misconceptions about physics content. Using the theoretical lens of epistemological framing,…
Due to the absence of an external, classical time variable, the probabilistic predictions of covariant quantum theory are ambiguous when multiple measurements are considered. Here, we introduce an information theoretic framework to the…
Research-validated multiple-choice questions comprise an easy-to-implement instructional tool that serves to scaffold student learning and formatively assess students knowledge. We present findings from the implementation, in consecutive…
We investigate the difficulties that students in calculus-based introductory physics courses have with the concepts of symmetry, electric field, and electric flux which are important for applying Gauss's law. The determination of the…
We report on several specific student difficulties regarding the Second Law of Thermodynamics in the context of heat engines within upper-division undergraduates thermal physics courses. Data come from ungraded written surveys, graded…
Quantum mechanics relates probability of an observable event to the absolute square of the corresponding probability amplitude. It may, therefore, seem that the information about the amplitudes' phases must be irretrievably lost in the…
As experiments continue to push the quantum-classical boundary using increasingly complex dynamical systems, the interpretation of experimental data becomes more and more challenging: when the observations are noisy, indirect, and limited,…
We study the transition probabilities of a two-point measurement on a quantum system, initially prepared in a thermal state. We find two independent constraints on the difference between transition probabilities when the system is prepared…
This paper compares the proposal made in previous papers for a quantum probability distribution of the time of arrival at a certain point with the corresponding proposal based on the probability current density. Quantitative differences…
The role of probability in quantum mechanics is reviewed, with a discussion of the ``orthodox'' versus the statistical interpretive frameworks, and of a number of related issues. After a brief summary of sources of unease with quantum…
We consider wave models with lower order terms and recollect some recent results on energy and dispersive estimates for their solution based on symbolic type estimates for coefficients and partly stabilisation conditions. The exposition is…