English

Time-Dependent Quantum Weak Values: Decay Law for Post-Selected States

Quantum Physics 2009-11-13 v3

Abstract

Weak measurements offer new insights into the behavior of quantum systems. Combined with post-selection, quantum mechanics predicts a range of new experimentally testable phenomena. In this paper I consider weak measurements performed on time-dependent pre- and post-selected ensembles, with emphasis on the decay of excited states. The results show that the standard exponential decay law is a limiting case of a more general law that depends on both the time of post-selection and the choice of final state. The generalized law is illustrated for two interesting choices of post-selection.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0807.1357,
  title  = {Time-Dependent Quantum Weak Values: Decay Law for Post-Selected States},
  author = {P. C. W. Davies},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0807.1357},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

7 pages, research paper, revised to incorporate some introductory background on the subject

R2 v1 2026-06-21T10:58:43.581Z