Weak measurement and Bohmian conditional wave functions

DOI10.1016/J.AOP.2014.07.014MaRDI QIDQ309368zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Travis Norsen, Ward Struyve

Publication date 7 September 2016

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

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1305.2409

zbMATH Keywords

quantum mechanicsweak measurementbohmian mechanicsquantum non-locality

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

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

Abstract: It was recently pointed out (and demonstrated experimentally) by Lundeen et al. that the wave function of a particle (more precisely, the wave function possessed by each member of an ensemble of identically-prepared particles) can be "directly measured" using weak measurement. Here it is shown that if this same technique is applied, with appropriate post-selection, to one particle from a (perhaps entangled) multi-particle system, the result is precisely the so-called "conditional wave function" of Bohmian mechanics. Thus, a plausibly operationalist method for defining the wave function of a quantum mechanical sub-system corresponds to the natural definition of a sub-system wave function which Bohmian mechanics (uniquely) makes possible. Similarly, a weak-measurement-based procedure for directly measuring a sub-system's density matrix should yield, under appropriate circumstances, the Bohmian "conditional density matrix" as opposed to the standard reduced density matrix. Experimental arrangements to demonstrate this behavior -- and also thereby reveal the non-local dependence of sub-system state functions on distant interventions -- are suggested and discussed.

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Cites work

• Observing the average trajectories of single photons in a two-slit interferometer
• On the role of density matrices in bohmian mechanics
• On the weak measurement of velocity in Bohmian mechanics
• Quantum equilibrium and the origin of absolute uncertainty
• Speakable and unspeakable in quantum mechanics. With an introduction by Alain Aspect
• The theory of (exclusively) local beables

Cited in

(6)

• Strong measurements give a better direct measurement of the quantum wave function
• Weak values as context-dependent values of observables and Born’s rule
• Weak measurements from the point of view of Bohmian mechanics
• Reconstruction of Bohmian trajectories via weak measurement for bipartite states
• On the weak measurement of velocity in Bohmian mechanics
• Quantum state nonclassicality in weak measurements in view of Bochner's criteria

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