A general theory of quantum measurements
Summarize this article with:
Quantum Physics arXiv:2602.15075 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 16 Feb 2026] Title:A general theory of quantum measurements Authors:Shizhong Mei View a PDF of the paper titled A general theory of quantum measurements, by Shizhong Mei View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:A universal energy eigenvalue equation is proposed in this paper. It is proven that the unique set of eigenfunctions or preferred basis exists for any non-isolated sub-system. Applying the new eigenvalue equation to the relative motion of a hydrogen atom together with the derived relativistic Hamiltonian to quantify the impact of finite proton mass to the fine structure, correction to the fine structure is obtained as a result of the entanglement of the relative motion and the center-of-mass motion, which can be used to verify the correctness of the proposed eigenvalue equation. Applying the equation to the measurement of electron double-slit interference, it is analyzed that the photon packets with Lorentzian spectral lineshape, the domain and state density of the sub-system, and the energy of the incident electron together determines the spontaneous emission rate of the incident electron. Photons generated in this process excite electrons from the valence band to the conduction band of the detector. Corresponding to any emitted or absorbed photon, the sub-system is found to be uniquely determined by maximizing the transition rate. This new principle is valid for atoms too. Closed-form expressions are obtained for the transition rates and example numerical results show good correlation between calculation and the position measurement experiment. The discovered common mechanisms that determine the sub-systems, the preferred bases, and transition rates form the foundation of a new, general, and consistent theory of quantum measurement. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2602.15075 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2602.15075v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.15075 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Shizhong Mei [view email] [v1] Mon, 16 Feb 2026 04:15:46 UTC (39 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled A general theory of quantum measurements, by Shizhong MeiView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-02 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)