English

Bifurcation in Quantum Measurement

Quantum Physics 2017-11-06 v2

Abstract

We present a generic model of (non-destructive) quantum measurement. Being formulated within reversible quantum mechanics, the model illustrates a mechanism of a measurement process --- a transition of the measured system to an eigenstate of the measured observable. The model consists of a two-level system μ\mu interacting with a larger system AA, consisting of smaller subsystems. The interaction is modelled as a scattering process. Restricting the states of AA to product states leads to a bifurcation process: In the limit of a large system AA, the initial states of AA that are efficient in leading to a final state are divided into two separated subsets. For each of these subsets, μ\mu ends up in one of the eigenstates of the measured observable. The probabilities obtained in this branching confirm the Born rule.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1708.01552,
  title  = {Bifurcation in Quantum Measurement},
  author = {Karl-Erik Eriksson and Martin Cederwall and Kristian Lindgren and Erik Sjöqvist},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.01552},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

A revised version that includes a more general presentation of the model (in Sect. 4) and a larger revision of the Introduction

R2 v1 2026-06-22T21:07:09.583Z