Impossibility of Measuring the Wave Function of a Single Quantum System
- 15 April 1996
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 76 (16), 2832-2835
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.76.2832
Abstract
The general impossibility of determining the state of a single quantum system is proved for arbitrary measuring schemes, including a succession of measurements. Some recently proposed methods are critically examined. A scheme for tomographic measurements on a single copy of a radiation field is devised, showing that the system state is perturbed however weak the system-apparatus interaction is, due to the need of preparing the apparatus in a highly “squeezed” state.Keywords
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