Abstract
I suggest that quantum mechanical nonlocality may in a certain sense allow a particle to be in two places at the same time, without violating causality. I discuss the measurable consequences of such a feat, and speculate about possible statistical tests which could distinguish this view of quantum mechanics from a “corpuscular” one. In particular, I describe some experiments being set up at Toronto which will investigate atomic tunneling, looking among other things for a signature of such alkali schizophrenia.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
A. Shimony, “Search for a worldview which can accommodate our knowledge of microphysics,” in Philosophical Consequences of Quantum Theory: Reflections on Bell's Theorem, James T. Cushing and Eran McMullin, eds. (University of Notre Dame Press, 1989), pp. 25-37.
A. Shimony, “Events and processes in the quantum world,” in Quantum Concepts in Space and Time, R. Penrose and C. Isham, eds. (Oxford University Press, 1986).
J. Jarrett, Noûs 18, 569-589 (1984).
S. M. Tan, D. F. Walls, and M. J. Collett, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 252 (1991).
L. Hardy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 2279 (1994).
D. M. Greenberger, M. A. Horne, and A. Zeilinger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 2064 (1995).
R. Y. Chiao and A. M. Steinberg, “Tunneling times and superluminality,” in Progress in Optics, Vol. 37, pp. 345-405, E. Wolf, ed. ( Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1997).
M. W. Mitchell and R. Y. Chiao, Phys. Lett. A 230, 133 (1997).
P. H. Eberhard and R. R. Ross, Found. Phys. Lett. 2, 127 (1989).
Y. Aharonov and L. Vaidman, Phys. Lett. A 178, 38 (1993).
Y. Aharonov and J. Anandan, Phys. Rev. A 47, 4616 (1993).
W. G. Unruh, Phys. Rev. A 50, 882 (1994).
J. von Neumann, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton University Press, 1955).
J. von Neumann, “Measurement and Reversibility” and “The Measuring Process,” Quantum Theory and Measurement, J. A. Wheeler and W. H. Zurek, eds. (Princeton University Press, 1983).
W. H. Zurek, Phys. Today 44, 36 (1991).
Y. Aharonov, D. Z. Albert, and L. Vaidman, Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 1351 (1988).
Y. Aharonov and L. Vaidman, Phys. Rev. A 41, 11 (1990).
B. Reznik and Y. Aharonov, Phys. Rev. A 52, 2538 (1995).
M. O. Scully, B.-G. Englert, and H. Walther, Nature 351, 111 (1991).
P. G. Kwiat, A. M. Steinberg, and R. Y. Chiao, Phys. Rev. A 45, 7729 (1992).
M. S. Chapman, T. D. Hammond, A. Lenef, J. Schmiedmayer, R. A. Rubenstein, E. Smith, and D. E. Pritchard, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 3783 (1995).
T. J. Herzog, P. G. Kwiat, H. Weinfurter, and A. Zeilinger, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 3034 (1995).
E. H. Hauge and J. A. Støvneng, Rev. Mod. Phys. 61, 917 (1989).
R. Landauer and Th. Martin, Rev. Mod. Phys. 66, 217 (1994).
A. M. Steinberg, P. G. Kwiat, and R. Y. Chiao, Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 708 (1993).
A. Enders and G. Nimtz, J. Phys. I France 3, 1089 (1993).
C. Spielmann, R. Szipöcs, A. Stingl, and F. Krausz, Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 2308 (1994).
A. M. Steinberg and R. Y. Chiao, Phys. Rev. A 51, 3525 (1995).
A. M. Steinberg, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 2405 (1995).
A. M. Steinberg, Phys. Rev. A 52, 32 (1995).
T. E. Hartman, J. App. Phys. 33, 3427 (1962).
A. M. Steinberg and R. Y. Chiao, Phys. Rev. A 49, 3283 (1994).
Y. Aharonov, S. Popescu, D. Rohrlich, and L. Vaidman, Phys. Rev. A 48, 4084 (1993).
G. Iannaccone, “Weak measurement and the traversal time problem,” preprint quant-ph/ 9611018, to appear in the Proceedings of the Adriatico Research Conference on “Tunneling and Its Implications,” ICTP, Trieste (World Scientific, Singapore, 1997).
S. L. Rolston, C. Gerz, K. Helmerson, P. S. Jessen, P. D. Lett, W. D. Phillips, R. J. C. Spreeuw, and C. I. Westbrook, “ Trapping atoms with optical potentials, ” in SPIE Vol. 1726 Shanghai International Symposium on Quantum Optics, Wang, Wang, and Wang, eds. (SPIE: Bellingham, Wash., 1992), p. 205.
J. D. Miller, R. A. Cline, and D. J. Heinzen, Phys. Rev. A 47, R4567 (1993).
N. Davidson, H. J. Lee, C. S. Adams, M. Kasevich, and S. Chu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 1311 (1995).
A. Steinberg, R. Thompson, V. Bagnoud, K. Helmerson, and W. Phillips, “Manipulating atoms with acousto-optically modulated beams,” 15th International Conference on Atomic Physics, abstract ThJ6, H. B. van Linden van den Heuvell, J. T. A. Walraven, and M. W. Reynolds, eds. (University of Amsterdam, 1996).
P. Rudy, R. Ejnisman, A. Rahman, S. Lett, and N. P. Bigelow, “Characterization of the RODiO trap,” 1997 Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference technical notes, abstract QTuJ5 (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC, 1997).
K. B. Davis, M.-O. Mewes, M. R. Andrews, N. J. van Druten, D. S. Durfee, D. M. Kurn, and W. Ketterle, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 3969 (1995).
M. Büttiker and R. Landauer, Phys. Scr. 32, 429 (1985).
A. O. Caldeira and A. J. Leggett, Ann. Phys. 149, 374 (1983).
A. Ranfagni, D. Mugnai, P. Fabeni, and G. P. Pazzi, Phys. Scri. 42, 508 (1990).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Steinberg, A.M. Single-Particle Nonlocality and Conditional Measurements. Foundations of Physics 28, 385–397 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018707810154
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018707810154