Related papers: What's Wrong with these Observables?
For a pair of observables, they are called "incompatible", if and only if the commutator between them does not vanish, which represents one of the key features in quantum mechanics. The question is, how can we characterize the…
It is shown that the full unknown state of a spin-1/2 system, S, which, within Born's statistical interpretation, is meant as the state of an ensamble of identically prepared systems, can be determined with a simultaneous measurement with…
We consider binary mixtures of fluids with components having different temperatures. A new dynamical pressure term is associated with the difference of temperatures between components even if fluid viscosities are null. The non-equilibrium…
This is a late answer to question #79 by R.I. Khrapko, "Does plane wave not carry a spin?," Am. J. Phys. /69/, 405 (2001), and a complement (on gauge invariance, massive spin 1 and 1/2, and massless spin 2 fields) to the paper by H.C.…
The concept of a modular value of an observable of a pre- and post-selected quantum system is introduced. It is similar in form and in some cases has a close connection to the weak value of an observable, but instead of describing an…
A weak continuous quantum measurement of an atomic spin ensemble can be implemented via Faraday rotation of an off-resonance probe beam, and may be used to create and probe nonclassical spin states and dynamics. We show that the probe light…
We analyze the physical meaning of a possible experiment aimed at the simultaneous measurement of two non-commuting spin components. We demonstrate that switching of a strong spin-orbit interaction, e.g., in a solid state or a cold-atom…
An analysis of errors in measurement yields new insight into the penetration of quantum particles into classically forbidden regions. In addition to ``physical" values, realistic measurements yield ``unphysical" values which, we show, can…
We present a conundrum that results from the imprecise use of notation for partial derivatives. Taking an example from mechanics, we show that lack of proper care in representing partial derivatives in Lagrangian and Hamiltonian…
Unsolved controversies about uncertainty relations and quantum measurements still persists nowadays. They originate around the shortcomings regarding the conventional interpretation of uncertainty relations. Here we show that the respective…
The possibility of variations of the values of fundamental constants is a phenomenon predicted by a number of scenarios beyond General Relativity. This can happen if ``our'' fundamental constants are not the actual constants of the…
It is possible that fundamental constants may not be constant at all. There is a generally accepted view that one can only talk about variations of dimensionless quantities, such as the fine structure constant $\alpha_{\rm e}\equiv…
The sensitivity parameter is widely used in measuring the severity of fine-tuning, while many examples show it doesn't work under certain circumstances. The validity of the sensitivity is in question. We argue that the dimensional effect is…
In the conventional formulation, it is broadly accepted that simultaneous measurability and commutativity of observables are equivalent. However, several objections have been claimed that there are cases in which even nowhere commuting…
It is demonstrated that a weak measurement of the squared quadrature observable may yield negative values for coherent states. This result cannot be reproduced by a classical theory where quadratures are stochastic $c$-numbers. The real…
We investigate some possible relations between physical observables and estimate the "cosmic variance" which affects these measurements. We focus on redshift and angular-distance and we discuss the difference in considering the redshift as…
The application of the notion of `observable' from gauge theory to diffeomorphism-invariant theories -- most relevantly to general relativity -- has led to numerous conceptual and technical issues when interpreting classical theories with…
The traditional optical concept for the object does not provide an experimental feasibility to speak for itself, due to the fact that no measuring instrument catches up with the fluctuation of light fields. Using the theory of coherence, we…
Rotational spectra of diatomic molecules measured in the high-precision experiments are analyzed. Such a spectrum is usually fitted by an 8th order polynomial in spin. In fact, from the theoretical point of view, the rotational spectrum is…
Bell inequalities are a consequence of measurement incompatibility (not, as generally thought, of nonlocality). In classical terms, this is equivalent to contextuality -- measurement devices do have a significant effect. Contextual models…