Quantum measurement

About this book

With relativity theory, quantum mechanics stands as the conceptual foundation of modern physics. But at its core lies a paradox: standard conceptions of quantum mechanics imply that the results of many of the measurements supporting and verifying quantum mechanical theory can have no definite outcomes. Some quantity such as position or momentum is always indefinite on a quantum system; and if an indefinite quantity is measured, the macroscopic state of the measuring apparatus that is supposed to record the outcome instead becomes indefinite itself. In Quantum Measurement, editors Richard A. Healey and Geoffrey Hellman marshal the resources of leading physicists and philosophers of science, skillfully joining their insights and ingenuity to yield some of the most innovative and altogether promising thought to date on this enigmatic issue.

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