Comment on “Non-representative Quantum Mechanical Weak Values”

B. E. Y. Svensson

B. E. Y. Svensson

Anonymous

Xabier Oianguren-Asua

Juan José Seoane, Xabier Oianguren-Asua, Albert Solé +1 more

In their paper (arXiv:2402.09879), Aredes and Saldanha analyze several paradoxes related to weak values and present a "general argument" that aims to show that "realistic interpretations ...of weak values lead to inconsistencies". Although we agree with the identified inconsistencies for the specific weak values analyzed there, in this Comment we demonstrate that the origin of these inconsistencies is not their general argument, which is formally incorrect. We use Bohmian mechanics as a counterexample to confirm that their conclusions are not valid for all weak values and quantum theories. In particular, we show that weak values postselected in position can in fact be interpreted within Bohmian mechanics as properties of quantum systems, detached from any measuring devices, in a consistent and meaningful way.

B. E. Y. Svensson

Ben-Israel and Vaidman (arXiv:1608.07185) raise objections to my arguments that there are cases where a quantum mechanical weak value can be said not to represent the system to which it pertains. They are right in pointing out that some of my conclusions are too general. However, there are still cases where my conclusions withstand to their scrutiny.