Heisenberg Microscope as a Device for Quantum Variation Measurement

Sergey P. Vyatchanin, A. Yu. Lavrenov

Sergey P. Vyatchanin

Franz Klaus Jansen

Irreducible indeterminism is considered by most physicists as an ontological interpretation of quantum mechanics, which attributes inherent indeterminism to elementary particles.This view was extrapolated by von Neumann from the atomocosm to the entire universe.Heisenberg proposed an epistemic interpretation, postulating that indeterminism stems from ambivalent detection systems, rather than being a characteristic of elementary particles.Transformative detection that inherently affects the measured phenomena is responsible for the indeterminism in the atomocosm.As the same does not generally hold true in the macrocosm, this discrepancy has led to the notion of the Heisenberg cut.As explained by Heisenberg's microscope example, high-energy light can displace electrons from their atomic shells in the atomocosm, but would not induce the same effect on objects in the macrocosm, thus rendering such detection neutral.Therefore, detection systems are ambivalent in that they can be transformative under the cut and neutral otherwise.Device variation is found under and above the cut and is the essential cause of outcome variability in the macrocosm.Thus, two completely different categories of indeterminism exist simultaneously under the Heisenberg cut, but only one is found above the cut, known as measurement variations of devices.Experimental exploration of elementary particle behaviors is possible only with the help of detection systems.If these systems affect particle characteristics in any way, this would be sufficient to explain the irreducible quantum mechanical indeterminism.Consequently, the true behavior of elementary particles, whether indeterminist or determinist, would never be detectable.Above the cut, on the other hand, variations in device performance are inevitable, due to reducible perturbing factors, inducing measurement variation of devices.Heisenberg discovered a general principle of ambivalent detection systems, which can also be found in the macrocosm.In the Wilson Cloud Chamber, vapor is an ambivalent detection system, since high-energy charged particles would produce straight tracks, whereas those of lower energy would leave an irregular trace.According to the epistemic interpretation, von Neumann's extrapolation of irreducible quantum mechanical indeterminism to the entire universe would not be necessary, thereby avoiding the uncomfortable conclusion that the entire universe is based on indeterminism.

Christian Kurtsiefer, Tilman Pfau, Stefan J. Spalter +2 more

Jan-Åke Larsson

The Heisenberg microscope provides a powerful mental image of the measurement process of quantum mechanics (QM), attempting to explain the uncertainty relation through an uncontrollable backaction from the measurement device. However, Heisenberg's proposed backaction uses features that are not present in the QM description of the world, and according to Bohr not present in the world. Therefore, Bohr argues, the mental image proposed by Heisenberg should be avoided. Later developments by Bell and Kochen-Specker show that a model that contains the features used for the Heisenberg microscope is in principle possible but must necessarily be nonlocal and contextual. In this paper we will reexamine the measurement process within a restriction of QM known as Stabilizer QM (SQM), that still exhibits, for example, Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger nonlocality and Peres-Mermin contextuality. The reexamination will use a recent extension of SQM, the Contextual Ontological Model (COM), where the system state gives a complete description of future measurement outcomes reproducing the quantum predictions, including the mentioned phenomena. We will see that the resulting contextual Heisenberg microscope backaction can be completely described within COM, and that the associated randomness originates in the initial state of the pointer system, exactly as in the original description of the Heisenberg microscope. The presence of contextuality, usually seen as prohibiting ontological models, suggests that the contextual Heisenberg microscope picture could perhaps be enabled in general QM.

Marianne Breinig