Measurement and Quasi-States in Quantum-Mechanics

Part of the task of quantum logic is to account for the collapse of the state vector during measurement. A difficulty in this is that it is not obvious how to describe measurement quantum mechanically as the interaction of two or more systems: interacting quantum mechanical systems do not possess states, so their states cannot collapse. Only the externally non-interacting composite system formed from all the interacting systems possesses a state, yet quantum theory is based on assigning state to interacting systems. Before any progress can be made in the quantum logical problem of measurement, this seeming paradox must be resolved, for a measurement is (at least) an interaction of physical systems.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mathematics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Harper, C. Douglas

• Mathematics
• Physics, General

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8711805

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71249