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The basic physical problems that necessitated the emergence of quantum physics are summarized, along with the elements of wave mechanics and its traditional statistical interpretation. Alternative interpretations to the statistical one,…
It has been suggested that the uncertainty in the measurement of a particle's momentum could be made arbitrarily small by observing the particle at two ends of an arbitrarily long flight path. However, consideration of the nature of the…
We reconsider some important foundational problems of quantum mechanics. After reviewing the measurement problem and discussing its unavoidability, we analyze some proposals to overcome it. This analysis leads us to reconsider the current…
There are several inequivalent proposals in the literature for how to compute the probability distribution of the time that a detector registers for the arrival of a quantum particle. For two of these proposals, based on absorbing boundary…
We study the probability assignment for the outcomes of time-extended measurements. We construct the class-operator that incorporates the information about a generic time-smeared quantity. These class-operators are employed for the…
Over the last decade a growing number of quantum-gravity researchers has been looking for opportunities for the first ever experimental evidence of a Planck-length quantum property of spacetime. These studies are usually based on the…
We present a method to estimate the probabilities of outcomes of a quantum observable, its mean value, and higher moments by measuring any other observable. This method is general and can be applied to any quantum system. In the case of…
We study wave equations with energy dependent potentials. Simple analytical models are found useful to illustrate difficulties encountered with the calculation and interpretation of observables. A formal analysis shows under which…
It is argued that there is a sensible way to define conditional probabilities in quantum mechanics, assuming only Bayes's theorem and standard quantum theory. These probabilities are equivalent to the ``weak measurement'' predictions due to…
We discuss experimental situations that consist of multiple preparation and measurement stages. This leads us to a new approach to quantum mechanics. In particular, we introduce the idea of multi-time quantum states which are the…
We assume that particles are point-like objects even when not observed. We report on the consequences of our assumption within the realm of quantum theory. An important consequence is the necessity of vacuum fields to account for particle…
Characterizing distinct electron wave packets is a basic task for solid-state electron quantum optics with applications in quantum metrology and sensing. A important circuit element for this task is a non-stationary potential barrier than…
Without addressing the measurement problem (i.e. what causes the wave function to ``collapse'', or to ``branch'', or a history to become realized, or a property to actualize), I discuss the problem of the timing of the quantum measurement:…
Proximity measurements probe whether pairs of particles are close to one another. We consider the impact of post-selected random proximity measurements on a quantum fluid of many distinguishable particles. We show that such measurements…
The probability `measure' for measurements at two consecutive moments of time is non-additive. These probabilities, on the other hand, may be determined by the limit of relative frequency of measured events, which are by nature additive. We…
Quantum mechanics predicts the joint probability distributions of the outcomes of simultaneous measurements of commuting observables, but the current formulation lacks the operational definition of simultaneous measurements. In order to…
The uncertainty associated with probing the quantum state is expressed as the effective abundance (measure) of possibilities for its collapse. New kinds of uncertainty limits entailed by quantum description of the physical system arise in…
As part of a longitudinal study into identity development in upper-level physics students, we used a phenomenographic research method to examine students' perceptions of what it means to be a physicist. The results revealed four different…
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…
We consider the energy density and energy transfer in small amplitude, one-dimensional waves on a string, and find that the common expressions used in textbooks for the introductory physics with calculus course give wrong results for some…