Acta Structuralica

international journal for structuralist research

Series | Book | Chapter

177665

Von Neumann's theory of quantum measurement

Jeffrey Bub

pp. 63-74

Abstract

I said quantum physicists bother very little about accounting, according to the accepted law, for the supposed change of the wave-function by measurement. I know of only one attempt in this direction, to which Dr. Balazs recently directed my attention. You find it in John von Neumann’s well-known book. With great acuity he constructs one analytical example. It does not refer to any actual experiment, it is purely analytical. He indicates in a simple case a supplementary operator which, when added to the internal wave operator, would with any desired approximation turn the wave function as time goes on into an eigenfunction of the observable that is measured. He found it necessary to show that such a mechanism is analytically possible. The idea has not been taken up and worked out since — in about twenty years or more. Indeed I do not think it would pay. I do not believe any real measuring device is of this kind. ([1], p. 83)

Publication details

Published in:

(2001) John von Neumann and the foundations of quantum physics. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 63-74

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-2012-0_5

Full citation:

Bub Jeffrey (2001) „Von Neumann's theory of quantum measurement“, In: , John von Neumann and the foundations of quantum physics, Dordrecht, Springer, 63–74.