Protective Measurement and Quantum Reality

Abstract

It is shown that from the expectation values of obervables, which can be measured for a single system using protective measurements, the linear structure, inner product, and observables in the Hilbert space can be reconstructed. A universal method of measuring the wave function of a single particle using its gravitational field is given. Protective measurement is generalized to the measurement of a degenerate state and to many particle systems. The question of whether the wave function is real is examined, and an argument of Einstein in favor of the ensemble interpretation of quantum theory is refuted.

(e-mail [email protected]) 30 pages, to be published in Foundations of Physics Letters

References in corpus (1)

• Measurement of the Schrodinger wave of a single particle

Cited by in corpus (15)

• The Meaning of the Wave Function: In Search of the Ontology of Quantum Mechanics
• Gravitational Phase Operator and Cosmic Strings
• Quantum Thermodynamics and Quantum Coherence Engines
• Wigner Friend scenarios with non-invasive weak measurements
• Analysis of quantum-state disturbance in a protective measurement of a spin-1/2 particle
• State disturbance and pointer shift in protective quantum measurements
• The Wave Function and Quantum Reality
• An argument for psi-ontology in terms of protective measurements
• Protective Measurements and the Reality of the Wave Function
• Protective measurement of open quantum systems
• Protective measurements of photon polarization using a temporal pointer
• Model for Entangled States with Spin-Spin Interaction
• Realistic experiments for measuring the wave function of a single particle
• Performance advantage of protective quantum measurements
• Quantum Measurement Problem and the Possible Role of the Gravitational Field