Impossible Measurements on Quantum Fields

Details Impossible Measurements on Quantum Fields Impossible Measurements on Quantum Fields

1993-02-17

arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9302018v2

published in the book, Directions in General Relativity: Proceedings of the 1993 International Symposium, Maryland, Vol. 2: Pa

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

13 pages, preprint number SU-GP-92/12-4

Scientific paper

It is shown that the attempt to extend the notion of ideal measurement to quantum field theory leads to a conflict with locality, because (for most observables) the state vector reduction associated with an ideal measurement acts to transmit information faster than light. Two examples of such information-transfer are given, first in the quantum mechanics of a pair of coupled subsystems, and then for the free scalar field in flat spacetime. It is argued that this problem leaves the Hilbert space formulation of quantum field theory with no definite measurement theory, removing whatever advantages it may have seemed to possess vis a vis the sum-over-histories approach, and reinforcing the view that a sum-over-histories framework is the most promising one for quantum gravity.

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