Envariance as a Symmetry in Quantum Mechanics and Applications to Statistical Mechanics

Authors

Paul Bracken, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-16-2023

Abstract

A quantum symmetry called entanglement-assisted invariance, also called envariance, is introduced. It is studied with respect to the process of performing quantum measurements. An apparatus which interacts with other physical systems, which are called environments, exchanges a single state with physical states equal in number to that of the possible outcomes of the experiment. Correlations between the apparatus and environment give rise to a type of selection rule which prohibits the apparatus from appearing in a superposition corresponding to different eigenvalues of the pointer basis of the apparatus. The eigenspaces of this observable form a natural basis for the apparatus and determine the observable of the measured quantum system. It is also discussed how statistical mechanics can be formulated in terms of this symmetry.

Comments

© 2023 by the author. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Recommended Citation

Bracken, P. Envariance as a Symmetry in Quantum Mechanics and Applications to Statistical Mechanics. Symmetry 2023, 15, 1923. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym15101923

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Title

Symmetry

DOI

10.3390/sym15101923