Heisenberg probably rules – OK?
I first saw this as graffiti in the 1970’s – at University in the UK and at pubs around the University. But it seems that there are areas of doubt surrounding the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and – by extension – around some of the basic tenets of quantum mechanics. The “observer effect” where the observation itself alters the observation may be uncertain. The question is whether uncertainty of uncertainty can lead to certainty.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 100404 (2012)
Violation of Heisenberg’s Measurement-Disturbance Relationship by Weak Measurements by Lee A. Rozema, Ardavan Darabi, Dylan H. Mahler, Alex Hayat, Yasaman Soudagar, and Aephraim M. Steinberg DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.100404
Dilbert on uncertainty – from United Features Syndicate Inc.
A synopsis by David Voss in the APS
When first taking quantum mechanics courses, students learn about Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, which is often presented as a statement about the intrinsic uncertainty that a quantum system must possess. Yet Heisenberg originally formulated his principle in terms of the “observer effect”: a relationship between the precision of a measurement and the disturbance it creates, as when a photon measures an electron’s position. Although the former version is rigorously proven, the latter is less general and—as recently shown—mathematically incorrect. In a paper in Physical Review Letters, Lee Rozema and colleagues at the University of Toronto, Canada, experimentally demonstrate that a measurement can in fact violate Heisenberg’s original precision-disturbance relationship.
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