Objectivity in Quantum Measurement

The objectivity is a basic requirement for the measurements in the classical world, namely, different observers must reach a consensus on their measurement results, so that they believe that the object exists “objectively” since whoever measures it obtains the same result. We find that this simple r...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Foundations of physics 2018-06, Vol.48 (6), p.654-667
Main Authors: Li, Sheng-Wen, Cai, C. Y., Liu, X. F., Sun, C. P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Axioms
Classical and Quantum Gravitation
Classical Mechanics
History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics
Objectivity
Observers
Philosophy of Science
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Quantum mechanics
Quantum Physics
Quantum theory
Relativity Theory
Statistical Physics and Dynamical Systems
Textbooks
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The objectivity is a basic requirement for the measurements in the classical world, namely, different observers must reach a consensus on their measurement results, so that they believe that the object exists “objectively” since whoever measures it obtains the same result. We find that this simple requirement of objectivity indeed imposes an important constraint upon quantum measurements, i.e., if two or more observers could reach a consensus on their quantum measurement results, their measurement basis must be orthogonal vector sets. This naturally explains why quantum measurements are based on orthogonal vector basis, which is proposed as one of the axioms in textbooks of quantum mechanics. The role of the macroscopicality of the observers in an objective measurement is discussed, which supports the belief that macroscopicality is a characteristic of classicality.
ISSN:0015-9018
1572-9516
DOI:10.1007/s10701-018-0169-9