How to protect the interpretation of the wave function against protective measurements

Jos Uffink

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

A new type of procedures, called protective measurements, was proposed by Aharonov, Anandan, and Vaidman [Phys. Rev. A 97, 4616 (1993); Found. Phys. 26, 117 (1996)]. These authors argued that a protective measurement allows the determination of arbitrary observables of a single quantum system, and claimed that this favors a realistic interpretation of the quantum state. This paper proves that only observables that commute with the system’s Hamiltonian can be measured protectively. It is argued that this restriction saves the coherence of alternative interpretations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3474-3481
Number of pages8
JournalPhysical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Volume60
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1999

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