10 pages. There is some overlap with quant-ph/0006077 and quant-ph/0102049 which are contributions to conferences where some of the results were presented
Interaction-free measurements introduced by Elitzur and Vaidman [Found. Phys. 23, 987 (1993)] allow finding infinitely fragile objects without destroying them. Many experiments have been successfully performed showing that indeed, the original scheme and its modifications lead to reduction of the disturbance of the observed systems. However, there is a controversy about the validity of the term ``interaction-free'' for these experiments. Broad variety of such experiments are reviewed and the meaning of the interaction-free measurements is clarified.
Measurement interaction between a measured object and a measuring instrument, if both are initially in a pure state, produces a (final) bipartite entangled state vector. The quasi-classical part of the correlations in it is connected with transmission of information in the measurement. But, prior to "reading" the instrument, there is also purely quantum entanglement in the final state vector. It is shown that in repeatable measurement quantitatively the entanglement equals the amount of incompatibility between the measured observable and the final state. It also equals the amount of incompatib…
We examine the entanglement and state disturbance arising in a protective measurement and argue that these inescapable effects doom the claim that protective measurement establishes the reality of the wave function. An additional challenge to this claim results from the exponential number of protective measurements required to reconstruct multi-qubit states. We suggest that the failure of protective measurement to settle the question of the meaning of the wave function is entirely expected, for protective measurement is but an application of the standard quantum formalism, and none of the hard…
The Aharonov-Bergmann-Lebowitz rule assigns probabilities to quantum measurement results at time t on the condition that the system is prepared in a given way at t_1 < t and found in a given state at t_2 > t. The question whether the rule can also be applied counterfactually to the case where no measurement is performed at the intermediate time t has recently been the subject of controversy. I argue that the counterfactual meaning may be understood in terms of the true value of an observable at t. Such a value cannot be empirically determined for, by stipulation, the measurement that would yie…
In arXiv:0709.0483 Gunther and Samsonov outline a ``generalization'' of quantum mechanics that involves simultaneous consideration of Hermitian and non-Hermitian operators and promises to be ``capable to produce effects beyond those of standard Hermitian quantum mechanics.'' We give a simple physical interpretation of Hermiticity and discuss in detail the shortcomings of the above-mentioned composite quantum theory. In particular, we show that the corresponding ``generalization of measurement theory'' suffers from a dynamical inconsistency and that it is by no means adequate to replace the sta…
For the last 20 years, the question of what are the fundamental capabilities of quantum precision measurements has sparked a lively debate throughout the scientific community. Typically, the ultimate limits in quantum metrology are associated with the notion of the Heisenberg limit expressed in terms of the physical resources used in the measurement procedure. Over the years, a variety of different physical resources were introduced, leading to a confusion about the meaning of the Heisenberg limit. Here, we review the mainstream definitions of the relevant resources and introduce the universal…
We examine the locality assumption of Bell's theorem in three steps of EPRB experiment. Depending on the context, locality is embodied in the conditions of separability, local causality, factorizability, relativistic causality, and non-contextuality. We show that separability, characterized by the constraint of zero covariance, is equivalent to local causality which leads to factorizability through the measurement process. Factorizability is the conjunction of parameter independence and outcome independence. It is commonly believed that relativistic causality is equivalent to parameter indepen…
The term "measurement" in quantum theory (as well as in other physical theories) is ambiguous: It is used to describe both an experience - e.g., an observation in an experiment - and an interaction with the system under scrutiny. If doing physics is regarded as a creative activity to develop a meaningful description of the world, then one has to carefully discriminate between the two notions: An observer's account of experience - consitutive to meaning - is hardly expressed exhaustively by the formal framework of an interaction within one particular theory. We develop a corresponding perspecti…
In this paper we attempt to analyze the physical and philosophical meaning of quantum contextuality. We will argue that there exists a general confusion within the foundational literature arising from the improper "scrambling" of two different meanings of quantum contextuality. While the first one, introduced by Bohr, is related to an epistemic interpretation of contextuality which stresses the incompatibility (or complementarity) of certain measurement situations described in classical terms; the second meaning of contextuality is related to a purely formal understanding of contextuality as e…
Counterfactual communication, i.e., communication without particle travelling in the transmission channel, is a bizarre quantum effect. Starting from interaction-free measurements many protocols achieving various tasks from counterfactual cryptogrphy to counterfactual transfer of quantum states were proposed and implemented in experiments. However, the meaning of conterfactuality in various protocols remained a controversial topic. A simple error-free counterfactual protocol is proposed. This protocol and its modification are used as a test bed for analysis of meaning of counterfactuality to c…
Classical ergodicity retains its meaning in the quantum realm when the employed measurement is protective. This unique measuring technique is reexamined in the case of post-selection, giving rise to novel insights studied in the Heisenberg representation. Quantum statistical mechanics is then briefly described in terms of two-state density operators.
My view on the meaning of the quantum wave function and its connection to protective measurements is described. The wave function and only the wave function is the ontology of the quantum theory. Protective measurements support this view although they do not provide a decisive proof. A brief review of the discovery and the criticism of protective measurements is presented. Protective measurements with postselection are discussed.
The analysis of the model quantum clocks proposed by Aharonov et al. [Phys. Rev. A 57 (1998) 4130 - quant-ph/9709031] requires considering evanescent components, previously ignored. We also clarify the meaning of the operational time of arrival distribution which had been investigated.
We investigate in this work the meaning of weak values through the prism of property ascription in quantum systems. Indeed, the weak measurements framework contains only ingredients of the standard quantum formalism, and as such weak measurements are from a technical point of view uncontroversial. However attempting to describe properties of quantum systems through weak values -- the output of weak measurements -- goes beyond the usual interpretation of quantum mechanics, that relies on eigenvalues. We first recall the usual form of property ascription, based on the eigenstate-eigenvalue link …
Despite their important applications in metrology and in spite of numerous experimental demonstrations, weak measurements are still confusing for part of the community. This sometimes leads to unjustified criticism. Recent papers have experimentally clarified the meaning and practical significance of weak measurements, yet in [R.E. Kastner, Found. Phys. 47, 697-707 (2017)], Kastner seems to take us many years backwards in the debate, casting doubt on the very term "weak value" and the meaning of weak measurements. Kastner appears to ignore both the basics and frontiers of weak measurements and…
In 1993 Elitzur and Vaidman introduced the concept of interaction-free measurements which allowed finding objects without ``touching'' them. In the proposed method, since the objects were not touched even by photons, thus, the interaction-free measurements can be called as ``seeing in the dark''. Since then several experiments have been successfully performed and various modifications were suggested. Recently, however, the validity of the term ``interaction-free'' has been questioned. The criticism of the name is briefly reviewed and the meaning of the interaction-free measurements is clarifie…
Is it possible that a measurement of a spin component of a spin-1/2 particle yields the value 100? In 1988 Aharonov, Albert and Vaidman argued that upon pre- and postselection of particular spin states, weakening the coupling of a standard measurement procedure ensures this paradoxical result. This theoretical prediction, called weak value, was realized in numerous experiments, but its meaning remains very controversial, since its "anomalous" nature, i.e. the possibility to exceed the eigenvalues range, as well as its "quantumness" are debated. We address these questions by presenting the firs…
We analyse interaction-free measurements on classical and quantum objects. We show the transition from a classical interaction free measurement to a quantum non-demolition measurement of atom number, and discuss the mechanism of the enforcement of complementarity in atom interferometric interaction-free measurements.
Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies（利奥·阿波斯泰尔跨学科研究中心）；Brussels Free University（布鲁塞尔自由大学）
We analyze the meaning of the violation of the marginal probability law for situations of correlation measurements where entanglement is identified. We show that for quantum theory applied to the cognitive realm such a violation does not lead to the type of problems commonly believed to occur in situations of quantum theory applied to the physical realm. We briefly situate our quantum approach for modeling concepts and their combinations with respect to the notions of 'extension' and 'intension' in theories of meaning, and in existing concept theories.
We analyze the physical meaning of a possible experiment aimed at the simultaneous measurement of two non-commuting spin components. We demonstrate that switching of a strong spin-orbit interaction, e.g., in a solid state or a cold-atom system, for a short period of time simulates a simultaneous von Neumann measurement of spin components, $σ_x$ and $σ_y$. By mapping spin dynamics onto coordinate-space motion, such a measurement determines time averages of $σ_x$ and $σ_y$ which, unlike their instantaneous values, may be evaluated simultaneously to an arbitrary accuracy.
We show that with an efficiency exceeding 99% one can use a monolithic total-internal-reflection resonator in order to ascertain the presence of an object without transferring a quantum of energy to it. We also propose an experiment on the probabilistic meaning of the electric field that contains only a very few photons.
It has been pointed out that for some types of measurement the Heisenberg uncertainty relation seems to be violated. In order to save the situation a new uncertainty relation was proposed by Ozawa. Here we introduce revised definitions of error and disturbance taking into account the gain associated with generalized measurement interactions. With these new definitions, the validity of the Heisenberg inequality is recovered for continuous linear measurement interactions. We also examine the changes in distribution functions caused by the general measurement interaction and clarify the physical …
In ``interaction free'' measurements, one typically wants to detect the presence of an object without touching it with even a single photon. One often imagines a bomb whose trigger is an extremely sensitive measuring device whose presence we would like to detect without triggering it. We point out that all such measuring devices have a maximum sensitivity set by the uncertainty principle, and thus can only determine whether a measurement is ``interaction free'' to within a finite minimum resolution. We further discuss exactly what can be achieved with the proposed ``interaction free'' measurem…
A brief review of interaction-free measurements (IFM) is presented. The IFM is a solution of a quantum puzzle: How to test a bomb which explodes on every test without exploding it? This paper was given in the Oxford conference in honor of Roger Penrose.
The operational meaning of some measures of noise and disturbance in measurements is analyzed and their limitations are pointed out. The cases of minimal noise and least disturbance are characterized.
Thermal channels -- the free processes allowed in the resource theory of quantum thermodynamics -- are generalised to thermal instruments, which we interpret as implementing thermodynamically free quantum measurements; a Maxwellian demon using such measurements never violates the second law of thermodynamics. Further properties of thermal instruments are investigated and, in particular, it is shown that they only measure observables commuting with the Hamiltonian, and they thermalise the measured system when performing a complete measurement, the latter of which indicates a thermodynamically i…
Interaction-free measurements introduced by Elitzur and Vaidman [Found. Phys. 23, 987 (1993)] allow finding infinitely fragile objects without destroying them. Paradoxical features of these and related measurements are discussed. The resolution of the paradoxes in the framework of the Many-Worlds Interpretation is proposed.
We discuss the effect of semitransparency in a quantum-Zeno-like interaction-free measurement setup, a quantum-physics based approach that might significantly reduce sample damage in imaging and microscopy. With an emphasis on applications in electron microscopy, we simulate the behavior of probe particles in an interaction-free measurement setup with semitransparent samples, and we show that the transparency of a sample can be measured in such a setup. However, such a measurement is not possible without losing (i.e., absorbing or scattering) probe particles in general, which causes sample dam…
We propose a Quantum Field Theory description of beams on a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer and apply the method to describe Interaction Free Measurements (IFMs), concluding that there is a change of momentum of the fields in IFMs. Analysing the factors involved in the probability of emission of low-energy photons, we argue that they do not yield meaningful contributions to the probabilities of the IFMs.
