No label defined (Q4710195)

Theoretical frameworks for measurement of (arrival) time in quantum mechanics are reviewed. A measurement of time may be described by a suitable time operator (conjugate to the energy operator) or can be visualized by the change in the position or in the momentum of a `physical clock particle' interacting with other parts of the system under consideration. It is not clear whether the two possibilities can be formally identified. The problem was discussed in the classical paper [\textit{Y. Aharonov} and \textit{D. Bohm}, Time in the quantum theory and the uncertainty relation for time and energy, Phys. Rev., II. Ser. 122, 1649--1658 (1961; Zbl 0096.43501)]. The authors try to clarify the question by analyzing the corresponding classical theory of measurement of time. It is argued that ambiguity between indirect measurements by a time operator and direct measurements by a physical clock particle has a counterpart in the classical theory: time can be understood as a parameter along a classical trajectory or as a record of change in the spatial position of a special clock particle. Although these two possibilities are classically equivalent, their precise mathematical description in the framework of the Hamiltonian formalism is not identical and upon canonical quantization they can give rise to quantum theories of time which need not be equivalent.