The quantum Zeno effect — watched pots in the quantum world |
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| Authors: | Anu Venugopalan |
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| Institution: | (1) Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science Darshan Sadan, E-36 Panchshila Park, New Delhi, 110 017, India |
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| Abstract: | In the 5th century BC, the philosopher and logician Zeno of Elea posed several paradoxes which remained unresolved for over
two thousand five hundred years. In recent times, the Zeno effect made an intriguing appearance in a rather unlikely place
— a situation involving the time evolution of a quantum system which is subject to ‘observations’ over a period of time. In
1977, B Misra and E C G Sudarshan published a paper on the quantum Zeno effect, called “The Zeno’s paradox in quantum theory”.
Their fascinating result revealed the bizarre workings of the quantum world. In the following article, the quantum Zeno effect
is described and a brief outline of some of the work following Misra and Sudarshan’s paper is given.
Anu Venugopalan is on the faculty of the Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science, New Delhi, on leave from GGS Indraprastha
University, Kashmere Gate, Delhi. Her primary research interests are in the areas of Foundations of Quantum mechanics, Quantum
Optics and Quantum Information. |
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| Keywords: | Zeno paradox unstable systems survival probability quantum evolution quantum measurements continuous measurements quantum Zeno effect quantum anti-Zeno effect |
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