Honoring Epimenides of Crete (±Δx): From Quantum Paradoxes, through Weak Measurements, to the Nature of Time

Cohen, Eliahu; Elitzur, Avshalom C.

doi:10.1051/epjconf/20147100028

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The classical liar paradox stemming from Epimenides' claim that "all Cretans are liars" is not necessarily absurd when stated by a quantummechanical Cretan (see also [13]). In Sects.…”

Section: The Indication Of Atom A/b That It Has Never Emitted/absorbementioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction-Free Effects Between Distant Atoms

et al. 2017

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A Gedanken experiment is presented where an excited and a ground-state atom are positioned such that, within the former's half-life time, they exchange a photon with 50% probability. A measurement of their energy state will therefore indicate in 50% of the cases that no photon was exchanged. Yet other measurements would reveal that, by the mere possibility of exchange, the two atoms have become entangled. Consequently, the "no exchange" result, apparently precluding entanglement, is non-locally established between the atoms by this very entanglement. This quantum-mechanical version of the ancient Liar Paradox can be realized with already existing transmission schemes, with the addition of Bell's theorem applied to the no-exchange cases. Under appropriate probabilities, the initially-excited atom, still excited, can be entangled with additional atoms time and again, or alternatively, exert multipartite nonlocal correlations in an interaction free manner. When densely repeated several times, this result also gives rise to the Quantum Zeno effect, again exerted between distant atoms without photon exchange. We discuss these experiments as variants of interactionfree-measurement, now generalized for both spatial and temporal uncertainties. We next employ weak measurements for elucidating the paradox. Interpretational issues are discussed in the conclusion, and a resolution is offered within the Two-State Vector Formalism and its new Heisenberg framework.

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“…The classical liar paradox stemming from Epimenides' claim that "all Cretans are liars" is not necessarily absurd when stated by a quantummechanical Cretan (see also [13]). In Sects.…”

Section: The Indication Of Atom A/b That It Has Never Emitted/absorbementioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction-Free Effects Between Distant Atoms

et al. 2017

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“…Epimenides' "all Cretans are liars" is not necessarily absurd when stated by a quantum-mechanical Cretan [18]. The resolution of this paradox [16] can be given in terms of a Cheshire cat behavior [19].…”

Section: The Indication Of Atom A/b That It Has Never Emitted /Absorbmentioning

confidence: 99%

The retrocausal tip of the quantum iceberg

Elitzur¹,

Cohen²

2017

AIP Conference Proceedings

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Abstract.We discuss the fundamental role of non-events in quantum mechanics. The (non-)emission of a particle from an isolated atom under the uncertainty principle is studied with the aid of two novel gedankenexperiments, one using projective measurements and the other going deeper with the aid of weak measurements. We describe the basic experimental setups, point out the surprising predictions of quantum theory, analyzed using the Two-State-Vector Formalism, and briefly conclude with some broader implications.

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“…Recently both schools produced novel accounts that deal with time's nature in radical ways [29,30]. As our own contribution to these issues has been only to stress their acuity [31], we can only hope for this kind of theorizing to be even more radical in the future.…”

Section: Ubiquity: Weak Values Affect All Quantum Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Voices of Silence, Novelties of Noise: Oblivion and Hesitation as origins of quantum mysteries

Cohen

Elitzur²

2015

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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Among the (in)famous differences between classical and quantum mechanics, quantum counterfactuals seem to be the most intriguing. At the same time, they seem to underlie many quantum oddities. In this article, we propose a simple explanation for counterfactuals, on two levels. Quantum Oblivion (QO) is a fundamental type of quantum interaction that we prove to be the origin of quantum counterfactuals. It also turns out to underlie several well-known quantum effects. This phenomenon is discussed in the first part of the article, yielding some novel predictions. In the second part, a hypothesis is offered regarding the unique spacetime evolution underlying QO, termed Quantum Hesitation (QH). The hypothesis invokes advanced actions and interfering weak values, as derived first by the Two-State-Vector Formalism (TSVF). Here too, weak values are argued to underlie the familiar "strong" quantum values. With these, an event that appears to have never occurred can exert causal effects and then succumb to QO by another time-evolution involving negative weak values that eliminate them. We conclude with briefly discussing the implications of these ideas on the nature of time.

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Honoring Epimenides of Crete (±Δx): From Quantum Paradoxes, through Weak Measurements, to the Nature of Time

Cited by 3 publications

References 32 publications

Interaction-Free Effects Between Distant Atoms

Interaction-Free Effects Between Distant Atoms

The retrocausal tip of the quantum iceberg

Voices of Silence, Novelties of Noise: Oblivion and Hesitation as origins of quantum mysteries

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