Distribution of the time at which an ideal detector clicks

DOI10.1016/J.AOP.2022.168910zbMATH Open1497.81007arXiv1601.03715OpenAlexW2234432841MaRDI QIDQ2144677FDOQ2144677

Authors: Roderich Tumulka 

Publication date: 14 June 2022

Published in: Annals of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We consider the problem of computing, for a detector surface waiting for a quantum particle to arrive, the probability distribution of the time and place at which the particle gets detected, from the initial wave function of the particle in the non-relativistic regime. Although the standard rules of quantum mechanics offer no operator for the time of arrival, quantum mechanics makes an unambiguous prediction for this distribution, defined by first solving the Schr"odinger equation for the big quantum system formed by the particle of interest, the detector, a clock, and a device that records the time and place of detection, then making a quantum measurement of the record at a very late time, and finally using the distribution of the recorded time and place. This leads to the question whether there is also a practical, simple rule for computing this distribution, at least approximately (i.e., for an idealized detector). We argue here in favor of a rule based on a 1-particle Schr"odinger equation with a certain (absorbing) boundary condition at the ideal detecting surface, first considered by Werner in 1987. We present a novel derivation of this rule and describe how it arises as a limit of a "soft" detector represented by an imaginary potential.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.03715

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zbMATH Keywords

quantum Zeno effectabsorbing boundary conditiontime of arrivaltime observabledetection timeimaginary potential

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General theory of numerical methods in complex analysis (potential theory, etc.) (65E05) Quantum measurement theory, state operations, state preparations (81P15) Closed and approximate solutions to the Schrödinger, Dirac, Klein-Gordon and other equations of quantum mechanics (81Q05) Delay control/observation systems (93C43) PDEs on time scales (35R07)

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Cited In (16)

• Limitations to genuine measurements in ontological models of quantum mechanics
• Absorbing boundary condition as limiting case of imaginary potentials
• Theory of quantum arrival and spatial wave function collapse on the appearance of particle
• Full counting statistics of stationary particle beams
• On a derivation of the absorbing boundary rule
• Space-time-bounded quantum fields for detection processes
• On the reaction time of moving sum detectors
• Complex charges, time reversal asymmetry, and interior-boundary conditions in quantum field theory
• Passive Quantum Measurement: Arrival Time, Quantum Zeno Effect and Gambler's Fallacy
• Time of arrival from Bohmian flow
• Running measurement protocol for the quantum first-detection problem
• Investigation of a quantum mechanical detector model for moving, spread-out particles
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Born's rule for arbitrary Cauchy surfaces
• The arrival-time distribution: the extended probability approaches
• Quantum time of arrival distribution in a simple lattice model

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