Quote:
Originally Posted by sjastro
The reference to real and imaginary components in this context is mathematical.
A wavefunction is complex valued.
A complex number is in the form a+bi. "a" is the real part of the complex number, "b" is the imaginary part of the complex number. i=sqrt(-1)
Similarly a wavefunction is composed of real and imaginary components.
Mathematically the complex number is the measurement.
Regards
Steven
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Thanks Steven (& Carl) ..
Steven ..
They say the
real part is provided by the shift in the 'pointer' related to the
position of the photon, and the
imaginary part is the shift in the pointer related to the
momentum of the photon.
But somehow, they then jump to making the statement that the
position is
weakly measured but the
momentum is
strongly measured (implying that there is no overlap in the initial and final values in the momentum part, but there must be some overlap in the same for the position part).
Presumably, (recollecting from my days gone by), all sorts of things can be derived if the real and imaginary parts of the complex number are known. Why the real and imaginary parts are associated with position and momentum in the first place … I'll have a guess and say its something to do with the complex function describing the generalised wavefunction ? (Its a wild guess, though .. probably wrong ..)
Cheers
PS: I notice the square of of a wave function's absolute value is interpreted as a three dimensional probability density function. The wave function itself, returns the probability amplitude of a position or momentum for a particle. All possible states of a systems are considered to be the whole number set, (hence the inclusion of the imaginary component). I think that answers my own question. Cool. Cheers.