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Unreal Observables

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Bryan W. Roberts
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Abstract

This article argues that quantum observables can include not just self-adjoint operators but any member of the class of normal operators, including those with nonreal eigenvalues. Concrete experiments, statistics, and symmetries are all expressed in this more general context. However, this more general class of observables also requires a new restriction on sets of operators that can be interpreted as observables at once, called ‘sharp sets’.

Type
Physical Sciences
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 84 , Issue 5 , December 2017 , pp. 1265 - 1274
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

Thanks to Jeremy Butterfield for many helpful suggestions about these ideas.

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