Related papers: Speakable and unspeakable in quantum measurements
This work sets out to answer a single question: what is the orthodox interpretation of quantum mechanics? However, we adopt a different approach to that normally used. Rather than surveying physicists, or poring over the precise details of…
The best mathematical arguments against a realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics - that gives definite but partially unknown values to all observables - are analysed and shown to be based on reasoning that is not compelling. This…
A large literature has grown up around the proposed use of 'weak measurements' (i.e., unsharp measurements followed by post-selection) to allegedly provide information about hidden ontological features of quantum systems. This paper…
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…
Weak measurements can be seen as an attempt at answering the 'Which way?' question without destroying interference between the pathways involved. Unusual mean values obtained in such measurements represent the response of a quantum system…
The orthodox quantum mechanics can describe results of observation but not an objective reality. Misunderstanding of its positivistic essence results to numerous mistaken publications, in particular about a possibility of a real quantum…
We consider highly inaccurate measurements made on classical stochastic and quantum systems. In the quantum case such a \e{weak} measurement preserves coherence between the system's alternatives. We demonstrate that in both cases the…
Any successful interpretation of quantum mechanics must explain how our empirical evidence allows us to come to know about quantum mechanics. In this article, we argue that this vital criterion is not met by the class of 'orthodox…
The term "measurement" in quantum theory (as well as in other physical theories) is ambiguous: It is used to describe both an experience - e.g., an observation in an experiment - and an interaction with the system under scrutiny. If doing…
A new quantum ontology of quantum mechanics has been proposed recently. This ontology is based on impossible to realize measurements which need to be performed repeatedly on the same single physical system or on the same pair of physical…
A new ontological view of the quantum measurement processes is given, which has bearings on many broader issues in the foundations of quantum mechanics as well. In this scenario a quantum measurement is a non-equilibrium phase transition in…
The notion of weak measurement provides a formalism for extracting information from a quantum system in the limit of vanishing disturbance to its state. Here we extend this formalism to the measurement of sequences of observables. When…
Uncertainty principle forbids one to determine which of the two paths a quantum system has travelled, unless interference between the alternatives had been destroyed by a measuring device, e.g., by a pointer. One can try to weaken the…
In this contribution I review rigorous formulations of a variety of limitations of measurability in quantum mechanics. To this end I begin with a brief presentation of the conceptual tools of modern measurement theory. I will make precise…
Weak measurement is a standard measuring procedure with two changes: it is performed on pre- and post-selected quantum systems and the coupling to the measuring device is weakened. The outcomes of weak measurements, ``weak values'' are very…
This work will incorporate a few related tools for addressing the conceptual difficulties arising from sewing together classical and quantum mechanics: deterministic operators, weak measurements and post-selection. Weak Measurement, based…
A resolution of the quantum measurement problem(s) using the consistent histories interpretation yields in a rather natural way a restriction on what an observer can know about a quantum system, one that is also consistent with some results…
Measurement in quantum mechanics is generally described as an irreversible process that perturbs the wavefunction describing a quantum system. In this work we establish a formal connection between the measurement description within the…
Measurement is an important scientific activity. In most of science, including classical physics, is may be understood as a way of finding out about the physical world and representing the results numerically. No-go theorems show that…
Given an ontological model of a quantum system, a "genuine measurement," as opposed to a quantum measurement, means an experiment that determines the value of a beable, i.e., of a variable that, according to the model, has an actual value…