Pre- and post-selection paradoxes and contextuality in quantum mechanics.
Many seemingly paradoxical effects are known in the predictions for outcomes of intermediate measurements made on pre- and post-selected quantum systems. Despite appearances, these effects do not demonstrate the impossibility of a noncontextual hidden variable theory, since an explanation in terms of measurement disturbance is possible. Nonetheless, we show that for every paradoxical effect wherein all the pre- and post-selected probabilities are 0 or 1 and the pre- and post-selected states are nonorthogonal, there is an associated proof of the impossibility of a noncontextual hidden variable theory. This proof is obtained by considering all the measurements involved in the paradoxical effect--the preselection, the post-selection, and the alternative possible intermediate measurements--as alternative possible measurements at a single time.
Leifer
M S
MS
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada.
Spekkens
Robert W
RW