Physics Commons^™

Quantum Reality With Negative-Mass Particles, Mordecai Waegell, Eliahu Cohen, Avshalom C. Elitzur, Jeff Tollaksen, Yakir Aharonov

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Physical interpretations of the time-symmetric formulation of quantum mechanics, due to Aharonov, Bergmann, and Lebowitz are discussed in terms of weak values. The most direct, yet somewhat naive, interpretation uses the time-symmetric formulation to assign eigenvalues to unmeasured observables of a system, which results in logical paradoxes, and no clear physical picture. A top–down ontological model is introduced that treats the weak values of observables as physically real during the time between pre- and post-selection (PPS), which avoids these paradoxes. The generally delocalized rank-1 projectors of a quantum system describe its fundamental ontological elements, and the highest-rank projectors corresponding to …