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Lüders's Rule as a Description of Individual State Transformations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Sergio Martinez
Sergio Martinez*
Affiliation:
Instituto de Investigaciones Filosoficas Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico
*
‡Send reprint requests to Instituto de Investigaciones Filosoficas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Circ. Mario de la Cueva, 04510 Coyoacan, MEXICO, D.F.
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Abstract

Usual derivations of Lüders's projection rule show that Lüders's rule is the rule required by quantum statistics to calculate the final state after an ideal (minimally disturbing) measurement. These derivations are at best inconclusive, however, when it comes to interpreting Lüders's rule as a description of individual state transformations. In this paper, I show a natural way of deriving Lüders's rule from well-motivated and explicit physical assumptions referring to individual systems. This requires, however, the introduction of a concept of individual state which is not standard.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , September 1991 , pp. 359 - 376
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I would like to thank Linda Wessels and Geoffrey Hellman who directed the research on which this paper is based. I also would like to thank an anonymous referee of this Journal for valuable comments.

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