Imperfect Measurements and Conjugate Observables

Adarsh S, P. N. Bala Subramanian, T. P. Sreeraj

Published 2024-01-10Version 1

In the standard von Neumann interaction used in Quantum measurements, the chosen observable to which the environment (apparatus) entangles is exactly reproduced in the state of the environment, thereby decohering the quantum system in the eigenbasis of the observable. We relax this by allowing for imperfect measurements whereby the environment evolves to a state that approximately, but not exactly, reflects the state of the system. In this scheme it is possible to attain approximate decoherence of conjugate quantities that resembles classical physics, which we demonstrate using an example.