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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Frolov, Lawrence
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01005
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author Frolov, Lawrence
author_facet Frolov, Lawrence
contents The quantum Zeno effect is often regarded as an obstruction to precise arrival time measurements in quantum mechanics. Here, an arbitrarily precise arrival time measurement procedure is constructed using a localized detection process and a suitably chosen boundary condition. The arrival time of an incoming particle is recorded in the position of a clock particle that is emitted by the apparatus upon detection. A non-zero probability of arrival is shown to survive even in the limit as the arrival time measurement procedure is made arbitrarily precise. In this limit, it is also found that the interaction between the incoming particle and the detector is described by an absorbing boundary condition. This justifies the claim of Tumulka that absorbing boundary conditions may be used to model idealized detectors capable of registering particles at the instant of their arrival.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2606_01005
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Arbitrarily precise arrival time measurements in quantum mechanics
Frolov, Lawrence
Quantum Physics
The quantum Zeno effect is often regarded as an obstruction to precise arrival time measurements in quantum mechanics. Here, an arbitrarily precise arrival time measurement procedure is constructed using a localized detection process and a suitably chosen boundary condition. The arrival time of an incoming particle is recorded in the position of a clock particle that is emitted by the apparatus upon detection. A non-zero probability of arrival is shown to survive even in the limit as the arrival time measurement procedure is made arbitrarily precise. In this limit, it is also found that the interaction between the incoming particle and the detector is described by an absorbing boundary condition. This justifies the claim of Tumulka that absorbing boundary conditions may be used to model idealized detectors capable of registering particles at the instant of their arrival.
title Arbitrarily precise arrival time measurements in quantum mechanics
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01005