Quantum reference frame: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:31, 28 August 2011

Revision as of 00:37, 19 April 2013

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Reconsidering the problem at the very beginning, one can certainly find a flaw of ambiguity in it, but it is generally understood that a standard reference frame is implicitly used in the problem. In fact, when a reference frame is classical, whether or not including it in the physical description of a system is irrelevant. One will get the same prediction by treating the reference frame internally or externally.

To illustrate the point further, a simple system with a ball bouncing off a wall is used. In this system, the wall can be treated either as an external {{Disambiguation[[Potential needed|Potentialenergy|potential|date=June 2011}}]] or as a [[dynamical system]] interacting with the ball. The former involves putting the external potential in the equations of motions of the ball while the latter treats the position of the wall as a dynamical [[degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry)|degree of freedom]]. Both treatments provide the same prediction, and neither is particularly preferred over the other. However, as it will be discussed below, such freedom of choice cease to exist when the system is quantum mechanical.

==Quantum reference frame==