Measuring energy, estimating Hamiltonians, and the time-energy uncertainty relation

Y. Aharonov*, S. Massar, S. Popescu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Scopus citations

Abstract

It was found that the real meaning of energy in quantum mechanics was that of governing the time evolution of a system. To measure the energy one needs to determine the time evolution, and this takes time. Thus energy measurements require time, and their precision was limited by the time given at the disposal. A proper energy measurement necessarily probes the time evolution and therefore cannot be done instantaneously. Rather the time taken to carry out the measurement and the precision with which one knows the energy were constrained by a time-energy uncertainty relation ΔtΔE≥1.

Original languageEnglish
Article number052107
Pages (from-to)052107/1-052107/11
JournalPhysical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Volume66
Issue number5
StatePublished - Nov 2002

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Measuring energy, estimating Hamiltonians, and the time-energy uncertainty relation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this