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Oxford University Press eBooks

What is Quantum Uncertainty?

Gershon Kurizki, Goren Gordon

Published Apr 16, 2020• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Eve attempts to eavesdrop on Henry, who discovers that her eavesdropping strategy is susceptible to hindrances imposed by the QM uncertainty principle. Eve can detect Henry’s whereabouts to any precision she chooses. However, a precise position measurement induces a large spread of Henry’s velocities and renders his position extremely uncertain, defeating Eve’s attempt to further track him. Such restriction on the maximal accuracy of measuring “complementary” observables was viewed by Bohr as a fundamental limitation on human perception of the world. A deeper explanation of complementarity may assume that the observer’s cognition and the observed object are inseparable, in the spirit of Spinoza, who considered nature as one substance with both mental and physical modalities. By studying these modalities, human knowledge may some day be freed from complementarity constraints. The appendix to this chapter introduces operators and their commutation relation and clarifies the position–momentum uncertainty relation.

DOI
10.1093/oso/9780198787464.003.0005

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Eve attempts to eavesdrop on Henry, who discovers that her eavesdropping strategy is susceptible to hindrances imposed by the QM uncertainty principle. Eve can detect Henry’s whereabouts to any precision she chooses. However, a precise position measurement induces a large spread of Henry’s velocities and renders his position extremely uncertain, defeating Eve’s attempt to further track him. Such restriction on the maximal accuracy of measuring “complementary” observables was viewed by Bohr as a fundamental limitation on human perception of the world. A deeper explanation of complementarity may assume that the observer’s cognition and the observed object are inseparable, in the spirit of Spinoza, who considered nature as one substance with both mental and physical modalities. By studying these modalities, human knowledge may some day be freed from complementarity constraints. The appendix to this chapter introduces operators and their commutation relation and clarifies the position–momentum uncertainty relation.
Abstract One of the foundational principles of quantum mechanics is Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation. According to this relation, no one can measure both the position of a particle and how fast it is moving simultaneously no matter how precise the measuring instruments. Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation and the associated Bohr’s principle of complementarity are explained using simple examples. The idea that measurement disturbs the system is a source of the uncertainty. The philosophical question whether the uncertainty represents only our inability to measure the properties precisely or it has much deeper consequences related to the question of reality is also discussed.
At the quantum scale, objects such as fundamental particles, atoms, and molecules are modeled as localized wavepackets rather than concrete objects. As such, some quantities that are well-defined at our human scale physics instead become uncertain. For instance, quantum objects do not have a precise position, and instead their position is understood probabilistically and we look to the expected, or average, value of the position. Another quirk of quantum mechanics is that quantities such as position and momentum become operators that act on functions, similar to matrices acting on vectors. As such, quantities that may have commuted classically may not at the quantum level. For instance, position (x) and momentum (p) commute in classical physics (xp = px), but they do not commute at the quantum level (xp ≠ px). For noncommuting operators A and B, the uncertainty principle qualitatively describes how well one can know A and B simultaneously: the more certain one is of the value of A, the less one knows the value B and vice versa. The standard example is that of position and momentum: the Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that the more certain one is of the position of a quantum object, the more uncertain one is about its momentum. The classic uncertainty principles between noncommuting operators are those of position and momentum, the z and x or y components of angular momentum, and number and phase operators. These operators are very rigid and do not provide easy generalization to more general operators. In this project, we used an infinite matrix representation to analyze the uncertainty principle underlying position and momentum which allows for broader generalization. The biggest component of this project was determining eigenvalues of infinite banded matrices which was aided by the use of the mathematical software Mathematica.
Chapter 4 introduces a great QM mystery: the notion of quantum measurements. Henry is in a superposition of versions localized in several places, but when Eve measures Henry’s position she (as a classical observer) either sees Henry or she does not. Physical reality is made of such measurements. Eve’s measurement projects or collapses Henry’s superposition state to a single location. The meaning of quantum-state or wavefunction “collapse” and the role of the observer have been at the heart of the historical debate concerning the interpretation of QM. Whereas Von Neumann and Wigner stressed the inseparability of the observed (measured) world from the human mind, alternative “observer-free” views were suggested, such as Everett’s many-world interpretation or Zurek’s quantum Darwinism that replaces the observer by the environment. In the appendix to this chapter the notion of probability amplitudes is elucidated, new notations for operators are introduced and projection operators are presented.
The more scientists learned about the atom, the less categorical became the questions they put to nature. The uncertainty relation is a strict law of nature, which is in no way related to some imperfections of our devices. The uncertainty relation is directly opposed to intuition and everyday experience. Heisenberg explained the matter by discarding still another idealization of classical physics — the concept of observation. It turned out that in quantum mechanics it had to be revised, along with the concept of motion. The concepts of “phenomenon”, “measurement”, and “observation” are closely related to one another but they are by no means identical. Any measurement is essentially interaction between the instrument and the object to be studied. The principle that Bohr named complementarity is one of the most fundamental philosophical and scientific ideas of our time, which can only be compared to the principle of relativity and the concept of a physical field.
The quantum mechanical uncertainty principle for position and momentum plays an important role in many treatments on the (philosophical, physical and other) implications of quantum mechanics. Roughly speaking, the more precisely the momentum (position) of a (quantum mechanical) object is given, the less precisely can one say what its position (momentum) is. This quantum mechanical measurement problem is not just an interpretational difficulty, it raises broader issues as well. The measurement (of a property) of a (quantum mechanical) object determines the existence of the measured. In brief, the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle challenges some fundamental principles of Science and especially the principle of causality. In particular, an independently existing (external) objective reality is denied. As we shall see, that the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle for position and momentum is based on the assumption that 1⩽0, which is a logical contradiction.
The quantum mechanical uncertainty principle for position and momentum plays an important role in many treatments on the (philosophical, physical and other) implications of quantum mechanics. Roughly speaking, the more precisely the momentum (position) of a (quantum mechanical) object is given, the less precisely can one say what its position (momentum) is. This quantum mechanical measurement problem is not just an interpretational difficulty, it raises broader issues as well. The measurement (of a property) of a (quantum mechanical) object determines the existence of the measured. In brief, the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle challenges some fundamental principles of Science and especially the principle of causality. In particular, an independently existing (external) objective reality is denied. As we shall see, that the quantum mechanical uncertainty principle for position and momentum is based on the assumption that 1⩽0, which is a logical contradiction.