Interpreting weak value amplification with a toy realist model
arXiv:1808.09951 · doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2019.06.010
Abstract
Constructing an ontology for quantum theory is challenging, in part due to unavoidable measurement back-action. The Aharonov-Albert-Vaidman weak measurement formalism provides a method to predict measurement results (weak values) in a regime where back-action is negligible. The weak value appears analogous to a classical conditional mean and in fact, has a number of features that further suggest it may be interpreted as being related to some underlying ontological model. However, the ontology appears bizarre since the weak values are complex and unbounded. Here, we study weak values in the context of a recent quantum optical experiment involving two-photon interactions. The results of the experiment are reinterpreted within a 'stochastic optics' model of light. The model is based on standard (Maxwell) electromagnetic theory, supplemented by stochastic fluctuations of the electromagnetic fields. We show that the conditional means of the electric field intensities correspond to the experimentally observed weak values. This is a provocative result, as it suggests that at least within this experiment, the weak value gives us information about the average of an ontological quantity (the intensity). We study the breakdown of the stochastic optics model, which occurs outside the experimentally probed regime, and in particular in the limit where the weak value predicts 'anomalous' results.
References in corpus (32)
- Ultrasensitive Beam Deflection Measurement via Interferometric Weak Value Amplification
- Experimental joint weak measurement on a photon pair as a probe of Hardy's Paradox
- Weak values and the Leggett-Garg inequality in solid-state qubits
- Amplifying Single-Photon Nonlinearity Using Weak Measurement
- Anomalous Weak Values Are Proofs of Contextuality
- Direct observation of Hardy's paradox by joint weak measurement with an entangled photon pair
- Weak value amplification is suboptimal for estimation and detection
- Observation of a quantum Cheshire Cat in a matter wave interferometer experiment
- Grounding Bohmian Mechanics in Weak Values and Bayesianism
- Conditional probabilities in quantum theory, and the tunneling time controversy
- How the result of a single coin toss can turn out to be 100 heads
- Weak-Measurement Elements of Reality
- Contextual Values of Observables in Quantum Measurements
- Observation of the Nonlinear Phase Shift Due to Single Post-Selected Photons
- Quantum measurements with preselection and postselection
- Weak value controversy
- Weak value beyond conditional expectation value of the pointer readings
- Weak-value amplification and optimal parameter estimation in the presence of correlated noise
- Bright filter-free source of indistinguishable photon pairs
- Interferometric weak value deflections: quantum and classical treatments
- Determining the Quantum Expectation Value by Measuring a Single Photon
- Measurement and Collapse within the Two-State-Vector Formalism
- A New Class of Retrocausal Models
- The Three-Box Paradox Revisited
- Classical Three-Box "paradox"
- Nonlocal Measurements via Quantum Erasure
- Comment on: How the result of a single coin toss can turn out to be 100 heads
- Sufficient conditions for uniqueness of the weak value
- Weak values in a classical theory with an epistemic restriction
- Contribution from stochastic electrodynamics to the understanding of quantum mechanics
- Towards a realistic interpretation of quantum mechanics providing a model of the physical world
- Weak values beyond weak measurement