What Is a Quantum-Mechanical "Weak Value" the Value of?
(2013) In Foundations of Physics 43(10). p.1193-1205- Abstract
- A so called "weak value" of an observable in quantum mechanics (QM) may be obtained in a weak measurement + post-selection procedure on the QM system under study. Applied to number operators, it has been invoked in revisiting some QM paradoxes (e.g., the so called Three-Box Paradox and Hardy's Paradox). This requires the weak value to be interpreted as a bona fide property of the system considered, a par with entities like operator mean values and eigenvalues. I question such an interpretation; it has no support in the basic axioms of quantum mechanics and it leads to unreasonable results in concrete situations.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4163440
- author
- Svensson, Bengt E Y LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2013
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Weak value, Number operator, Hardy's paradox, Interpretation of QM
- in
- Foundations of Physics
- volume
- 43
- issue
- 10
- pages
- 1193 - 1205
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000325622000003
- scopus:84885451076
- ISSN
- 0015-9018
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10701-013-9740-6
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 93fa8e0d-1fe5-4ec3-b339-03f127904132 (old id 4163440)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 13:43:19
- date last changed
- 2024-01-09 17:32:12
@article{93fa8e0d-1fe5-4ec3-b339-03f127904132, abstract = {{A so called "weak value" of an observable in quantum mechanics (QM) may be obtained in a weak measurement + post-selection procedure on the QM system under study. Applied to number operators, it has been invoked in revisiting some QM paradoxes (e.g., the so called Three-Box Paradox and Hardy's Paradox). This requires the weak value to be interpreted as a bona fide property of the system considered, a par with entities like operator mean values and eigenvalues. I question such an interpretation; it has no support in the basic axioms of quantum mechanics and it leads to unreasonable results in concrete situations.}}, author = {{Svensson, Bengt E Y}}, issn = {{0015-9018}}, keywords = {{Weak value; Number operator; Hardy's paradox; Interpretation of QM}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{10}}, pages = {{1193--1205}}, publisher = {{Springer}}, series = {{Foundations of Physics}}, title = {{What Is a Quantum-Mechanical "Weak Value" the Value of?}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10701-013-9740-6}}, doi = {{10.1007/s10701-013-9740-6}}, volume = {{43}}, year = {{2013}}, }