Reply to Aharonov and Anandan's "Meaning of the Density Matrix"

B. d'Espagnat

Published 1998-04-27Version 1

Aharonov and Anandan's claim that the notion of ``proper mixture'' is improper is shown to be unjustified. The point is made that if a purely operationalist standpoint is taken the three difficulties these authors describe relatively to the conventional interpretation of density matrices in fact vanish. It is noted that nevertheless it is very difficult for us to do without any form of realism, in particular when the quantum measurement problem is considered, and it is stressed that the proper mixture notion comes in precisely at this level. The more general question of the real bearing of Aharonov and Anandan's ideas on the interpretation of quantum mechanics problem is considered.