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Observer (quantum physics)

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effects on which the recording of the presence of atomic objects rests rather remind us of the essential irreversibility inherent in the very concept of observation. The description of atomic phenomena has in these respects a perfectly objective character, in the sense that no explicit reference is made to any individual observer and that therefore, with proper regard to relativistic exigencies, no ambiguity is involved in the communication of information.
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Of course the introduction of the observer must not be misunderstood to imply that some kind of subjective features are to be brought into the description of nature. The observer has, rather, only the function of registering decisions, i.e., processes in space and time, and it does not matter whether
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all unambiguous information concerning atomic objects is derived from the permanent marks such as a spot on a photographic plate, caused by the impact of an electron left on the bodies which define the experimental conditions. Far from involving any special intricacy, the irreversible amplification
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it is possible to measure the position and momentum of a particle at the same time. If the precision in measuring one quantity is increased, the precision in measuring the other decreases. An alternative version of the uncertainty principle, more in the spirit of an observer effect, fully accounts
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dispute. A number of new-age religious or philosophical views give the observer a more special role, or place constraints on who or what can be an observer. There is no credible peer-reviewed research that backs such claims. As an example of such claims,
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amounts to the same thing as the physical object it describes. This flawed concept must then require existence of an external mechanism, such as a measuring instrument, that lies outside the principles governing the time evolution of the wave function
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the observer is an apparatus or a human being; but the registration, i.e., the transition from the "possible" to the "actual," is absolutely necessary here and cannot be omitted from the interpretation of quantum theory.
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inquired, "Was the wave function waiting to jump for thousands of millions of years until a single-celled living creature appeared? Or did it have to wait a little longer for some highly qualified measurer—with a PhD?"
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declared, "The crucial feature of atomic physics is that the human observer is not only necessary to observe the properties of an object, but is necessary even to define these properties."
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from them without prospects of future strong quantum interference. This means that the type of measurement one performs on the system affects the end-state of the system.
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information that an observer can obtain from measurements of a given system. In this case, there is no real mystery in that this mathematical form of the wave function
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for the disturbance the observer has on a system and the error incurred, although this is not how the term "uncertainty principle" is most commonly used in practice.
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among physicists, posits that an "observer" or a "measurement" is merely a physical process. One of the founders of the Copenhagen interpretation,
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which describes the state of a system in quantum mechanics, one should be cautious of a common misconception that assumes that the wave function
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Once one has measured the system, one knows its current state; and this prevents it from being in one of its other states ⁠— it has apparently
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Schlosshauer, Maximilian; Kofler, Johannes; Zeilinger, Anton (2013-08-01). "A snapshot of foundational attitudes toward quantum mechanics".
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Critics of the special role of the observer also point out that observers can themselves be observed, leading to paradoxes such as that of
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Ozawa, Masanao (2003), "Universally valid reformulation of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle on noise and disturbance in measurement",
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like, for example, an atom, which has an observable mass, charge and spin, as well as internal degrees of freedom. Instead,
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ideas like "observer" in the early development of the theory has been a continuing source of disquiet and
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Kim, Yoon-Ho; R. Yu; S.P. Kulik; Y.H. Shih; Marlan Scully (2000). "A Delayed "Choice" Quantum Eraser".
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of the operator associated with the quantity that was measured, a change which is not time-reversible.
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particles can appear to have a nonlocal effect on the other particle. Additional problems related to
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V. P. Belavkin (1992). "Quantum continual measurements and a posteriori collapse on CCR".
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V. P. Belavkin (1989). "A new wave equation for a continuous non-demolition measurement".
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has been frequently confused with the observer effect, evidently even by its originator,
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Niels Bohr (1958), "Quantum Physics and Philosophy—Causality and Complementarity",
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of a quantum phenomenon. The quantum mechanical observer is tied to the issue of
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similar to the ubiquitous "observers" who send and receive light signals in
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must change abruptly after a measurement has been performed.
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An experimentally studied situation related to this is the
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arise when the observer is modeled as a quantum system.
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Essays 1958-1962 on Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge
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of quantum physics dictates that for a wave function
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is a contentious issue deeply connected to the many
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Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B
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Berlin Heidelberg New-York: Springer-Verlag. 1163: 43:The theoretical foundation of the concept of 8: 881:Quantum Gravity 2: A Second Oxford Symposium 1004:Physikalische Prinzipien der Quantentheorie 1170: 1156: 659:An Open Systems Approach to Quantum Optics 379: 377: 303:The prominence of seemingly subjective or 1085: 1033: 1008:The Physical Principles of Quantum Theory 909: 728: 681: 617: 572: 508: 397: 186:, in order to account for the so-called " 130:which in the space of the eigenfunctions 443:Quantum Computing: A Gentle Introduction 466:B.D'Espagnat, P.Eberhard, W.Schommers, 373: 1074:Communications in Mathematical Physics 1006:, Leipzig: Hirzel English translation 472:Quantum Theory and Pictures of Reality 7: 1199:Interpretations of quantum mechanics 1124: 1122: 841:Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods 320:Confusion with uncertainty principle 241:, which is the most widely accepted 49:interpretations of quantum mechanics 21:interpretations of quantum mechanics 781:The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics 440:; Polak, Wolfgang H. 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Springer-Verlag, 1989, 239:Copenhagen interpretation 928:10.1088/1361-6633/aae2c6 747:10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.1 783:. John Wiley and Sons. 716:Physical Review Letters 583:10.12743/quanta.v3i1.26 1138:-related article is a 808:Physics and Philosophy 284: 268: 256: 206:that contains all the 53:wave function collapse 1204:Quantum physics stubs 336:uncertainty principle 276: 263: 251: 196:not a physical object 101:possible eigenvalues 66:More explicitly, the 676:(Technical report). 57:discontinuous change 1189:Concepts in physics 1096:1992CMaPh.146..611B 1044:2003PhRvA..67d2105O 981:Scientific American 920:2019RPPh...82a2002M 739:2000PhRvL..84....1K 692:2012JPhA...45W4020B 628:1989PhLA..140..355B 519:2004RvMP...76.1267S 438:Rieffel, Eleanor G. 408:2013SHPMP..44..222S 362:Quantum foundations 326:Quantum decoherence 156:quantum Zeno effect 1104:10.1007/BF02097018 962:The Tao of Physics 357:Observer (physics) 280:special relativity 115:, of the operator 33:Hermitian operator 1194:Quantum mechanics 1151: 1150: 1136:quantum mechanics 1022:Physical Review A 877:John Stewart Bell 804:Werner Heisenberg 606:Physics Letters A 453:978-0-262-01506-6 340:Werner Heisenberg 247:Werner Heisenberg 217:A consequence of 164:Belavkin equation 1211: 1172: 1165: 1158: 1130: 1123: 1116: 1115: 1089: 1069: 1063: 1062: 1037: 1035:quant-ph/0207121 1017: 1011: 997: 991: 990: 988: 987: 972: 966: 954: 948: 947: 913: 894:Mermin, N. 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Index

interpretations of quantum mechanics
observer effect
Hermitian operator
measurement in quantum mechanics
interpretations of quantum mechanics
wave function collapse
eigenstate
superposition
decohered
quantum Zeno effect
stochastic
Belavkin equation
delayed choice quantum eraser
collapse of the wave function
Bell's theorem
entangled
decoherence
Copenhagen interpretation
interpretation of quantum mechanics
Werner Heisenberg
Niels Bohr
Asher Peres
special relativity
Wigner's friend
John Bell
anthropocentric
philosophical
Fritjof Capra
Quantum decoherence
Delayed choice quantum eraser

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