Detecting wave function collapse without prior knowledge

DOI10.1063/1.4928933MaRDI QIDQ2945492zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Charles Wesley Cowan, Roderich Tumulka

Publication date 11 September 2015

Published in Journal of Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.7321

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Quantum measurement theory, state operations, state preparations (81P15)

Abstract: We are concerned with the problem of detecting with high probability whether a wave function has collapsed or not, in the following framework: A quantum system with a $d$-dimensional Hilbert space is initially in state $psi$; with probability $0<p<1$, the state collapses relative to the orthonormal basis $b_1,\mathrm{...},b_d$. That is, the final state $ps{i}^{\prime }$ is random; it is $psi$ with probability $1-p$ and $b_k$ (up to a phase) with $p$ times Born's probability $|langle{b}_k|psiangle{|}^2$. Now an experiment on the system in state $ps{i}^{\prime }$ is desired that provides information about whether or not a collapse has occurred. Elsewhere, we identify and discuss the optimal experiment in case that $psi$ is either known or random with a known probability distribution. Here we present results about the case that no a priori information about $psi$ is available, while we regard $p$ and $b_1,\mathrm{...},b_d$ as known. For certain values of $p$, we show that the set of $psi$s for which any experiment E is more reliable than blind guessing is at most half the unit sphere; thus, in this regime, any experiment is of questionable use, if any at all. Remarkably, however, there are other values of $p$ and experiments E such that the set of $psi$s for which E is more reliable than blind guessing has measure greater than half the sphere, though with a conjectured maximum of 64% of the sphere.

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Cites work

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Cited in

(5)

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• Wavefunction collapse through backaction of counting weakly interacting photons
• Unravelling the noise: the discrimination of wave function collapse models under time-continuous measurements
• What is wave-function collapse by measurement?
• Can one detect whether a wave function has collapsed?

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