Thursday, 15 December 2016

Energy conservation and quantum measurement


Consider a particle in a potential well. Let’s assume it’s a simple harmonic oscillator potential and the particle is in its ground state with energy E0 = (1/2) ℏω0. We measure its position (measurement-1) with a high degree of accuracy which localises the particle, corresponding to a superposition of momentum (and therefore energy) states.


Now we measure the particle’s energy (measurement-2) and happen to find that it’s E10 = (21/2) ℏω0. Where did the extra energy come from?


In the textbooks it’s claimed that the extra energy comes from the act of observation but I wonder how that could work. Measurement-1 which probed the position of the particle can’t have delivered to it a precise amount of energy, while measurement-2 might just have been passive. No doubt there is entanglement here between the particle state and the measuring device but where, and which measurement?



Answer



For a high degree of accuracy you would have to probe the particle with a high energy (short wavelength) photon so there is plenty of energy that can go into vibrational excitation. After such hard hit the particle will be smeared across a wide range of states $$\Psi=a_0*\Psi_0+a_1*\Psi_1+...$$This is not an entanglement but a simple superposition of eigenstates. The expectation value of the particle's energy $\bar{E}=\sum_{i}a_i^2E_i$ should not be equal to the energy of any particular state and the second measurement will yield $E_i$ with $a_i^2$ probability.



So, the extra energy comes from an interaction with a probe particle and it doesn't have to be precisely equal to the energy of a certain vibrational state.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Understanding Stagnation point in pitot fluid

What is stagnation point in fluid mechanics. At the open end of the pitot tube the velocity of the fluid becomes zero.But that should result...