Abstract
A brief review of the attempts to define “elements of reality” in the framework of quantum theory is presented. It is noted that most definitions of elements of reality have in common the feature to be a definite outcome of some measurement. Elements of reality are extended to pre- and post- selected systems and to measurements which fulfill certain criteria of weakness of the coupling. Some features of the newly introduced concepts are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A. Einstein, B. Podolsky, and N. Rosen,Phys. Rev. 47, 777 (1935).
M. Jammer,The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1966).
M. Jammer,The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics (Wiley, New York, 1974).
J. S. Bell,Physics 1, 195 (1964).
M. Redhead,Incompleteness, Nonlocality, und Realism (Clarendon, Oxford. 1987), p. 72.
J. von Neumann,Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Theory (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1983).
Y. Aharonov and L. Vaidman,Phys. Rev. A 41, 11 (1990).
L. Vaidman,Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 3369–3372 (1993).
L. Vaidman, inSymposium on the Foundations of Modern Physics. P. J. Lahti. P. Bush, and P. Mittelstaedt, eds. (World Scientific, Singapore, 1993), pp. 406–417.
Y. Aharonov and L. Vaidman,J. Phys. A 24, 2315–2315 (1991).
It is interesting that fordichotomic variables the following is true: If the weak value is equal to one of the eigenvalues, i.e.,A n=a1 is the weak-measurement element of reality, thenA=a 1, is an element of reality in the strong sense, and ideal measurement ofA yieldsa 1 with probability one, see Ref. 10..
D. Bohm,Phys. Rev. 85, 97 (1952).
Y. Aharonov and L. Vaidman, inBohmian Mechanics and Quantum Theory: An Appraisal. J. T. Dishing, A. Fine, and S. Goldstein, eds. (Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1996).
Y. Aharonov and L. Vaidman,Phys. Lett. A 178, 38 (1993).
Y. Aharonov and L. Vaidman,Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 755, 361 (1995).
Y. Aharonov, S. Massar, S. Popescu, J. Tollaksen, and L. Vaidman,Phys. Rev. Lett. 77 (1996).
H. Everett,Rev. Mod. Phys. 29, 454–462 (1957).
Vaidman, L. (1993). “On schizophrenic experiences of the neutron or why we should believe in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory,” Tel-Aviv University preprint, TAUP 2058-93.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported in part by grant 614/65 of the Basic Research Foundation (administered by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vaidman, L. Weak-measurement elements of reality. Found Phys 26, 895–906 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02148832
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02148832