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Introduction

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Quantum Measurement

Abstract

Chapter 1 provides an introduction into the subject of this book—quantum measurement theory and its historical context, along with an overview of the four parts of the book. An outline of the basic relevant physical concepts is given together with a brief sketch of their mathematical formalisation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We leave aside the problem of justifying the frequency interpretation of probabilities. A lucid account of this problem and a consistent interpretation of probabilities as relative frequencies is given by van Fraassen [8].

  2. 2.

    The convex structure of the set of states is initially defined abstractly, without first assuming that the set of states is a subset of a real vector space. The underlying linear structure can be deduced by making a simple, innocent additional assumption, namely, that the set of observables allows one to separate distinct states. We return to this point in greater detail in Sect. 23.1.

References

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  2. von Neumann, J.: Mathematische Begründung der Quantenmechanik. Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse 1927, 1–57 (1927)

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  3. von Neumann, J.: Wahrscheinlichkeitstheoretischer Aufbau der Quantenmechanik. Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse 1927, 245–272 (1927)

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Busch, P., Lahti, P., Pellonpää, JP., Ylinen, K. (2016). Introduction. In: Quantum Measurement. Theoretical and Mathematical Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43389-9_1

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