Related papers: Student difficulties with determining expectation …
The experimental evaluation of many quantum mechanical quantities requires the estimation of several directly measurable observables, such as local observables. Due to the necessity to repeat experiments on individual quantum systems in…
Measurement uncertainty is an important topic in the undergraduate laboratory curriculum. Previous research on student thinking about experimental measurement uncertainty has focused primarily on introductory-level students' procedural…
Compared with introductory physics, relatively little is known about the development of expertise in advanced physics courses, especially in the case of quantum mechanics. Here, we describe a framework for understanding the patterns of…
Quantum information science and technology is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field drawing researchers from science and engineering fields. Traditional instruction in quantum mechanics is insufficient to prepare students for research…
This is a comment on J. A. Barrett's article ``The Preferred-Basis Problem and the Quantum Mechanics of Everything'' in Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 56 (2005), which concerns theories postulating that certain quantum observables have determinate…
We discuss an investigation exploring students' difficulties with equations involving resistance, capacitance and inductance. We find that introductory physics students have great difficulty understanding, e.g., how the resistance of an…
This brief survey analyzes the epistemological implications about the role of observer in the interpretations of Quantum Mechanics. As we know, the goal of most interpretations of quantum mechanics is to avoid the apparent intrusion of the…
The standard presentation of the principles of quantum mechanics is critically reviewed both from the experimental/operational point and with respect to the request of mathematical consistency and logical economy. A simpler and more…
Physics graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are often responsible for grading. Physics education research suggests that grading practices that place the burden of proof for explicating the problem solving process on students can help them…
The Dirac delta function is a standard mathematical tool that appears repeatedly in the undergraduate physics curriculum in multiple topical areas including electrostatics, and quantum mechanics. While Dirac delta functions are often…
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…
Quantum Computing is an exciting field that draws from information theory, computer science, mathematics, and quantum physics to process information in fundamentally new ways. There is an ongoing race to develop practical quantum computers…
Separation of variables can be a powerful technique for solving many of the partial differential equations that arise in physics contexts. Upper-division physics students encounter this technique in multiple topical areas including…
As is well known, in quantum mechanics, the calculation rule of the probability that an eigen-value a_n is observed when the physical quantity A is measured for a state described by the state vector |> is P(a_n)=<|A_n><A_n|> . However, in…
Students of quantum mechanics encounter discrete quantum numbers in a somewhat incoherent and bewildering number of ways. For each physical system studied, quantum numbers seem to be introduced in its own specific way, some enumerating from…
We describe the difficulties advanced undergraduate and graduate students have with quantum measurement. To reduce these difficulties, we have developed research-based learning tools such as the Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT)…
Students' difficulties in quantum mechanics may be the result of unproductive framing and not a fundamental inability to solve the problems or misconceptions about physics content. We observed groups of students solving quantum mechanics…
The development of estimation and control theories for quantum systems is a fundamental task for practical quantum technology. This vision article presents a brief introduction to challenging problems and potential opportunities in the…
We re-examine the status of the weak value of a quantum mechanical observable as an objective physical concept, addressing its physical interpretation and general domain of applicability. We show that the weak value can be regarded as a…
Measuring expectation values of observables is an essential ingredient in variational quantum algorithms. A practical obstacle is the necessity of a large number of measurements for statistical convergence to meet requirements of precision,…