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The time-energy uncertainty relation for quantum events

Quantum Physics 2021-12-08 v1

Abstract

Textbook quantum mechanics treats time as a classical parameter, and not as a quantum observable with an associated Hermitian operator. For this reason, to make sense of usual time-energy uncertainty relations such as ΔtΔE\Delta {t}\Delta E\gtrsim\hbar, the term Δt\Delta t must be interpreted as a time interval, and not as a time measurement uncertainty due to quantum noise. However, quantum clocks allow for a measurement of the "time at which an event happens" by conditioning the system's evolution on an additional quantum degree of freedom. Within this framework, we derive here two {\em true} uncertainty relations that relate the uncertainty in the quantum measurement of the time at which a quantum event happens on a system to its energy uncertainty.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2108.13974,
  title  = {The time-energy uncertainty relation for quantum events},
  author = {Matteo Fadel and Lorenzo Maccone},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.13974},
  year   = {2021}
}

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R2 v1 2026-06-24T05:34:20.142Z