On Weak Measurements & Foundational Experiments in Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

Quantum Foundations Despite the remarkable success of quantum theory in explaining black-body and atomic spectra as well as in paving the foundation for future technologies like Quantum Computing and Quantum Cryptography, interpretation of many of its concepts has led to a lot of debates. At the heart, the problem always reduces to asking when does a quantum object behave as a wave and when does it behave as a particle. This, in essence, is the wave-particle duality which gets manifested in two-path interferometers like the double-slit or the Mach Zehnder interferometer. If we assume that the propagation is of wave nature then we have to explain how the wave reduces or collapses to exhibit particle nature in individual events of detection, which is popularly known as the Measurement Problem.