Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Bolduc E
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4735685 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Bolduc Eliot E Gariepy Genevieve G Leach Jonathan J
Nature communications 20160119
In quantum mechanics, predictions are made by way of calculating expectation values of observables, which take the form of Hermitian operators. Non-Hermitian operators, however, are not necessarily devoid of physical significance, and they can play a crucial role in the characterization of quantum states. Here we show that the expectation values of a particular set of non-Hermitian matrices, which we call column operators, directly yield the complex coefficients of a quantum state vector. We pro ...[more]