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Protective Measurements a
Author(s) -
AHARONOV YAKIR,
VAIDMAN LEV
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1995.tb38979.x
Subject(s) - tel aviv , library science , citation , physics , computer science
Protective measurements yield properties of the quantum state of a singlequantum system without affecting the quantum state. A protective measurementinvolves adiabatic coupling to the measuring device together with a procedureto protect the state from changing. For nondegenerate energy eigenstates theprotection is provided by the system itself. In this case it is actuallypossible to measure the Schr\"odinger wave via measurements on a single system.This fact provides an argument in favor of associating physical reality with aquantum state of a single system, challenging the usual ensembleinterpretation. We also believe that the complete description of a quantumsystem requires a two-state vector formalism involving (in addition to theusual one)a future quantum state evolving backwards in time. Protectivemeasurements testing the two-state vector reality are constructed.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figur