English

Physics and the measurement of continuous variables

Quantum Physics 2007-12-19 v1

Abstract

Wigner had expressed the opinion that the impossibility of exact measurements of single operators like position operators rendered the notion of geometrical points somewhat dubious in physics. Using Sewell's recent resolution of the measurement problem (collapse of the wave packet) in quantum mechanics and extending it to the measurement of operators with continuous spectra, we are able to compare the situation in quantum mechanics with that in quantum mechanics. Our conclusion is that the notion of a geometrical point is as meaningful in quantum mechanics as it is in classical mechanics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0712.3045,
  title  = {Physics and the measurement of continuous variables},
  author = {R. N. Sen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0712.3045},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

20 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:55:29.345Z