Elsevier

Physics Letters A

Volume 189, Issue 6, 4 July 1994, Pages 442-448
Physics Letters A

The preparation-registration arrow of time in quantum mechanics

https://doi.org/10.1016/0375-9601(94)91207-6Get rights and content

Abstract

A part from the “collapse of the wave function” axiom, there is a quantum mechanical arrow of time expressing the fact that a state needs to be first prepared before observables can be measured in it. We show that this preparation-registration arrow of time is identical to the arrow for exponential decay (or growth) of resonance by Gamow vectors.

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1

Also at Theoretische Natuurkunde, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the International Solvay Institute, CP 231, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.

2

Also at Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados del I.P.N., Mexico, D.F. and Institute of Theoretical Physics, Warsaw University, Poland. Supported in part by the KBN Grant 2 0273 91 01.

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