How to Measure the Quantum Measure

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• 作者：Álvaro Mozota Frauca ; Rafael Dolnick Sorkin
• 关键词：Quantum measure theory ; Coupling ancillas
• 刊名：International Journal of Theoretical Physics
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：56
• 期：1
• 页码：232-258
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Physics and Astronomy
• 刊物主题：Physics, general; Quantum Physics; Elementary Particles, Quantum Field Theory; Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics;
• 出版者：Springer US
• ISSN：1572-9575
• 卷排序：56

文摘

The histories-based framework of Quantum Measure Theory assigns a generalized probability or measureμ(E) to every (suitably regular) set E of histories. Even though μ(E) cannot in general be interpreted as the expectation value of a selfadjoint operator (or POVM), we describe an arrangement which makes it possible to determine μ(E) experimentally for any desired E. Taking, for simplicity, the system in question to be a particle passing through a series of Stern-Gerlach devices or beam-splitters, we show how to couple a set of ancillas to it, and then to perform on them a suitable unitary transformation followed by a final measurement, such that the probability of a final outcome of “yes” is related to μ(E) by a known factor of proportionality. Finally, we discuss in what sense a positive outcome of the final measurement should count as a minimally disturbing verification that the microscopic event E actually happened.