Objectivity in Quantum Measurement

Sheng Wen Li*, C. Y. Cai, X. F. Liu, C. P. Sun

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)654-667
Number of pages14
JournalFoundations of Physics
Volume48
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Many-world interpretation
  • Objectivity
  • Quantum measurement

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