Exact pointer theories for von Neumann projector measurements of pre- and postselected and preselected-only quantum systems: statistical mixtures and weak value persistence

Abstract

Exact expressions for the mean pointer position, the mean pointer momentum and their variances are obtained for projection operator measurements performed upon ensembles of pre- and postselected (PPS) and preselected-only (PSO) quantum systems. These expressions are valid for any interaction strength which couples a measurement pointer to a quantum system, and consequently should be of general interest to both experimentalists and theoreticians. To account for the ‘collapse’ of PPS states to PSO states that occurs as interaction strength increases and to introduce the concept of ‘weak value persistence’, the exact PPS and PSO pointer theories are combined to provide a pointer theory for statistical mixtures. For the purpose of illustrating ‘weak value persistence’, mixture weights defined in terms of the Bhattacharyya coefficient are used and the statistical mixture theory is applied to mean pointer position data associated with weak value projector measurements obtained from a recent dynamical quantum non-locality detection experiment.