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arXiv:quant-ph/0512098

Can the Quantum Measurement Problem be resolved within the framework of Schroedinger Dynamics?

Geoffrey L. Sewell

Published Dec 13, 2005• 7 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We formulate the dynamics of the generic quantum system S_{c} comprising a microsystem S and a macroscopic measuring instrument I, whose pointer positions are represented by orthogonal subspaces of the Hilbert space of its pure states. These subspaces are simultaneous eigenspaces of a set of coarse grained intercommuting macroscopic observables and, most crucially, their dimensionalities are astronomically large, increasing exponentially with the number, N, of particles comprising I. We formulate conditions under which the conservative dynamics of S_{c} yields both a reduction of the wave packet describing the state of S and a one-to-one correspondence, following a measurement, between the pointer position of I and the resultant eigenstate of S; and we show that these conditions are fulfilled, up to utterly negligible corrections that decrease exponentially with N, by the finite version of the Coleman-Hepp model.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0512098

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We formulate the dynamics of the generic quantum system S_{c} comprising a microsystem S and a macroscopic measuring instrument I, whose pointer positions are represented by orthogonal subspaces of the Hilbert space of its pure states. These subspaces are simultaneous eigenspaces of a set of coarse grained intercommuting macroscopic observables and, most crucially, their dimensionalities are astronomically large, increasing exponentially with the number, N, of particles comprising I. We formulate conditions under which the conservative dynamics of S_{c} yields both a reduction of the wave packet describing the state of S and a one-to-one correspondence, following a measurement, between the pointer position of I and the resultant eigenstate of S; and we show that these conditions are fulfilled, up to utterly negligible corrections that decrease exponentially with N, by the finite version of the Coleman-Hepp model.
Abstract We provide an affirmative answer to the question posed in the title. Our argument is based on a treatment of the Schroedinger dynamics of the composite, Sc, of a quantum microsystem, S, and a macroscopic measuring apparatus, I, consisting of N interacting particles. The pointer positions of this apparatus are represented by subspaces of its representative Hilbert space that are simultaneous eigenspaces of coarse-grained intercommuting macroscopic observables. By taking explicit account of their macroscopicality, we prove that, for suitably designed apparatus I, the evolution of the composite Sc leads both to the reduction of the wave-packet of S and to a one-to-one correspondence between the resultant state of this microsystem and the pointer position of I, up to utterly neglible corrections that decrease exponentially with N.
We provide an affirmative answer to the question posed in the title. Our argument is based on a treatment of the Schroedinger dynamics of the composite, Sc, of a quantum microsystem, S, and a macroscopic measuring apparatus, J, consisting of N interacting particles. The pointer positions of this apparatus are represented by subspaces of its representative Hilbert space that are simultaneous eigenspaces of coarse‐grained intercommuting macroscopic observables. By taking explicit account of their macroscopicality, we prove that, for suitably designed apparatus J, the evolution of the composite Sc leads both to the reduction of the wave‐packet of S and to a one‐to‐one correspondence between the resultant state of this microsystem and the pointer position of J, up to utterly neglible corrections that decrease exponentially with N.
In this paper, a quantum dynamical model describing the quantum-measurement process is presented as an extensive generalization of the Coleman-Hepp model. In both the classical limit with very large quantum number and the macroscopic limit with very large particle number in the measuring instrument, this model generally realizes the wave-packet collapse in quantum measurement as a consequence of the Schr\"odinger time evolution in either the exactly solvable case or the non-exactly-solvable case. For the latter, the quasiadiabatic case is explicitly analyzed by making use of the high-order adiabatic-approximation method, which manifests the wave-packet collapse as well as in the exactly solvable case. By highlighting these analyses, it is finally found that an essence of the dynamical model of wave-packet collapse is the factorization of the Schr\"odinger evolution rather than the exact solvability. Therefore many dynamical models including the previous well-known ones, whether they are exactly solvable or not, can be shown to be only the concrete realizations of this factorizability.
Introduction In a very elegant and rigorous paper, K. Hepp has discussed quantum measurement theory. He uses the C * algebra description of infinite quantum systems. Here an attempt is made to give a more popular account of some of his reasoning. Such an attempt seems worthwhile because many people not familiar with the C * algebra approach, and even somewhat intimidated by it, have been intrigued by the following statement in Hepp's abstract: In several explicitly soluble models, the measurement leads to macroscopically different ‘pointer positions’ and to a rigorous ‘reduction of the wave packet’ with respect to all local observables. This could look like a clean solution at last to the infamous measurement problem. But it is not so, nor thought by Hepp to be so. Here we will take one of his models and analyse it in elementary text-book terms. It will be insisted that the ‘rigorous reduction’ does not occur in physical time but only in an unattainable mathematical limit. It will be argued that the distinction is an important one. We will work at first in the Schrödinger picture, but later, with the extension to relativistic systems in mind, it will be argued that such considerations become particularly clear in the Heisenberg picture.
This is the first of two papers showing that the quantum problem of measurement remains unsolved even when the initial state of the apparatus is described by a statistical operator and when the results of measurement have a small probability of being erroneous. A realistic treatment of the measurement of observables of microscopic objects (e.g., the position or the spin of an electron) by means of observables of macroscopic apparatus (e.g., the position of a spot on a photographic plate) requires the consideration of errors. The first paper considers measurement procedures of the following type: An initial eigenstate of the object observable leads to a final statistical operator of the object plus apparatus which describes a mixture of “approximate” eigenstates of the apparatus observable. It is proved that each of a large class of initial states leads to a final statistical operator which does not describe any mixture containing even one “approximate” eigenstate of the apparatus observable. INTRODUCTION Several writers have tried to solve the quantum-mechanical problem of measurement through one or both of the following proposals: (a) describthe initial state of the measuring apparatus by a projection onto a subspace of the associated Hilbert space or by a statistical operator, thus taking into account the practical impossibility of knowing the exact quantum state of a macroscopic object; (b) recognizing that there may be some physical inaccuracy, such as a small error in the position of a pointer needle, in the final registration of the outcome of the measurement by the apparatus.
By building a general dynamical model for quantum measurement process,it is shown that the factorization of reduced evolution operator sufficiently results in the quantum mechanical realization of the wave packet collapse and the state correlation between the measured system and the measuring instrument-detector.This realizability is largely independent of the details of both the interaction and Hamiltonian of detector. The Coleman-Hepp model and all its generalizations are only the special cases of the more universal model given in this letter.An explicit example of this model is finally given in connection with coherent state.