dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaIndistinguishability and improper mixtures
| Authors | K. A. Kirkpatrick |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0109146 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0109146 |
Abstract
All quantum mixtures are what d'Espagnat has termed "improper." His "proper" mixture cannot be created -- if welcher weg, or distinguishing, information exists, an improper mixture results, while in the absence of such information, the resulting "mixture" is a pure state. D'Espagnat has claimed that an interpretation of the improper mixture in terms of subensembles leads to logical inconsistency; this claim is shown to be incorrect, as d'Espagnat's argument fails to account for the indistinguishability of the pure-state subensembles.
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"abstract": "All quantum mixtures are what d\u0027Espagnat has termed \"improper.\" His \"proper\"\nmixture cannot be created -- if welcher weg, or distinguishing, information\nexists, an improper mixture results, while in the absence of such information,\nthe resulting \"mixture\" is a pure state. D\u0027Espagnat has claimed that an\ninterpretation of the improper mixture in terms of subensembles leads to\nlogical inconsistency; this claim is shown to be incorrect, as d\u0027Espagnat\u0027s\nargument fails to account for the indistinguishability of the pure-state\nsubensembles.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0109146",
"authors": [
"K. A. Kirkpatrick"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"title": "Indistinguishability and improper mixtures",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0109146"
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