It is usually believed that a picture of Quantum Mechanics in terms of true probabilities cannot be given due to the uncertainty relations. Here we discuss a tomographic approach to quantum states that leads to a probability representation of quantum states. This can be regarded as a classical-like formulation of quantum mechanics which avoids the counterintuitive concepts of wave function and density operator. The relevant concepts of quantum mechanics are then reconsidered and the epistemological implications of such approach discussed.
Glauber coherent states of quantum systems are reviewed. We construct the tomographic probability distributions of the oscillator states. The possibility to describe quantum states by tomographic probability distributions (tomograms) is presented on an example of coherent states of parametric oscillator. The integrals of motion linear in the position and momentum are used to explicitly obtain the tomogram evolution expressed in terms of trajectories of classical parametric oscillator
The continuous quantum measurement within the probability representation of quantum mechanics is discussed. The partial classical propagator of the symplectic tomogram associated to a particular measurement outcome is introduced, for which the representation of a continuous measurement through the restricted path integral is applied. The classical propagator for the system undergoing a non-selective measurement is derived by summing these partial propagators over the entire outcome set. The elaborated approach is illustrated by considering non-selective position measurement of a quantum oscill…
We obtain the tomogram of squeezed correlated states of a quantum parametric damped oscillator in an explicit form. We study the damping within the framework of the Caldirola--Kanai model and chose the parametric excitation in the form of a very short pulse simulated by a delta-kick of frequency; the squeezing phenomenon is reviewed. The cases of strong and weak damping are investigated.
In this work, the operator-sum representation of a quantum process is extended to the probability representation of quantum mechanics. It is shown that each process admitting the operator-sum representation is assigned a kernel, convolving of which with the initial tomogram set characterizing the system state gives the tomographic state of the transformed system. This kernel, in turn, is broken into the kernels of partial operations, each of them incorporating the symbol of the evolution operator related to the joint evolution of the system and an ancillary environment. Such a kernel decomposi…
The review of star-product formalism providing the possibility to describe quantum states and quantum observables by means of the functions called symbols of operators which are obtained by means of bijective maps of the operators acting in Hilbert space onto these functions is presented. Examples of the Wigner-Weyl symbols (like Wigner quasi-distributions) and tomographic probability distributions (symplectic, optical and photon-number tomograms) identified with the states of the quantum systems are discussed. Properties of quantizer-dequantizer operators which are needed to construct the bij…
Twin Hamiltonians, three types of the Dyson maps, and the probabilistic interpretation problem in quasi-Hermitian quantum mechanics
Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar(印度技术学院布巴内斯瓦尔分校);Adam Mickiewicz University(亚当·密茨凯维奇大学);The Czech Academy of Sciences, Nuclear Physics Institute(捷克科学院核物理研究所);University of Hradec Králové(赫拉德茨-克拉洛韦大学);Rochester Institute of Technology(罗切斯特理工学院)
We show that quantum theory (QT) is a substructure of classical probabilistic physics. The central quantity of the classical theory is Hamilton's function, which determines canonical equations, a corresponding flow, and a Liouville equation for a probability density. We extend this theory in two respects: (1) The same structure is defined for arbitrary observables. Thus we have all of the above entities generated not only by Hamilton's function but by every observable. (2) We introduce for each observable a phase space function representing the classical action. This is a redundant quantity in…
In this job, we will present a theory called Quantum Tomography that is the natural extension of the theory of detection of signals in classical telecommunications to Quantum Mechanics. This theory mainly consists in the reconstruction of a quantum state of a system through a probability distribution measured directly in the laboratory, usually called Tomogram. This Thesis contains five chapters. In the first one, we will show the birth of this theory as an adaptation of homodyne and heterodyne classical detection to Quantum Mechanics. In the second, we will describe a tomographic description …
The probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics has been a point of discussion since the earliest days of the theory. The development of quantum technologies transfer these discussions from philosophical interest to practical importance. We propose a synthesis of ideas appeared from the field's founders to modern contextual approaches. The concept is illustrated by a simple numerical experiment imitating photon interference in two beamsplitters. This example demonstrates that deterministic physical principles can replicate wavelike probabilistic effects when applied to stochastic ensembl…
Probability densities that are not uniquely determined by their moments are said to be "moment-indeterminate", or "M-indeterminate". Determining whether or not a density is M-indeterminate, or how to generate an M-indeterminate density, is a challenging problem with a long history. Quantum mechanics is inherently probabilistic, yet the way in which probability densities are obtained is dramatically different in comparison to standard probability theory, involving complex wave functions and operators, among other aspects. Nevertheless, the end results are standard probabilistic quantities, such…
The fact that certain "extraordinary" probabilistic phenomena--in particular, macroscopic violations of the second law of thermodynamics--have never been observed to occur can be accounted for by taking hard preclusion as a basic physical law; i.e. precluding from existence events corresponding to very small but nonzero values of quantum-mechanical weight. This approach is not consistent with the usual ontology of the Everett interpretation, in which outcomes correspond to branches of the state vector, but can be successfully implemented using a Heisenberg-picture-based ontology in which outco…
In classical physics, probabilistic or statistical knowledge has been always related to ignorance or inaccurate subjective knowledge about an actual state of affairs. This idea has been extended to quantum mechanics through a completely incoherent interpretation of the Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics in terms of "strange" quantum particles. This interpretation, naturalized through a widespread "way of speaking" in the physics community, contradicts Born's physical account of Ψ as a "probability wave" which provides statistical information about outcomes that, in fact, cannot be interp…