Quantum mechanical interaction-free measurements

Onofrio L. Russo, Liang Jiang

Filipe Barroso, Orfeu Bertolami A

M. A. B. Whitaker

Lev Vaidman A

The interaction-free measurements proposed by Elitzur and Vaidman (EV IFM) is a quantum mechanical method to find an object that interacts with other systems solely via its explosion without exploding it. In this method, an object can be found without ``touching it'', i.e. without any particle being at its vicinity.

R. M. Angelo, Otávio Bueno, Adonai S. Sant’Anna

The polemical term interaction-free measurement (IFM) is analyzed in its interpretative nature. Two seminal works proposing the term are revisited and their underlying interpretations are assessed. The role played by nonlocal quantum correlations (entanglement) is formally discussed and some controversial conceptions in the original treatments are identified. As a result the term IFM is shown to be consistent neither with the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics nor with the lessons provided by the EPR debate.

Eugene Paul Wigner, Mutsuo M. Yanase