How to measure quantum fields? Implementing a causal measurement scheme

28.11.2025, 11:00  –  Campus Golm, Building 9, Room 2.22 and via Zoom
Arbeitsgruppenseminar Analysis

Jan Mandrysch (Wien)

While measurement processes in standard quantum mechanics are well understood, the extension of these ideas to quantum field theory (QFT) remains a key challenge. In particular, ensuring that measurements respect fundamental principles such as relativistic causality is crucial. A persistent issue concerning measurements in QFT is, though, that the usual axioms for QFT alone are insufficient to prevent superluminal signaling. In this talk, I will discuss a recent proposal by Fewster and Verch for a local, covariant and causal measurement framework in algebraic QFT. In particular, I will discuss completeness of the framework and motivate its underlying assumptions focussing on the concrete setting of a free scalar field and Gaussian measurements. We conclude that the Fewster-Verch approach is suitable to model typical measurements in QFT.

The talk is based on joint work with Miguel Navascués ( Lett Math Phys 115, 115 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11005-025-02001-3 ).
 

For more information and log in details please contact Christian Molle.