Time in Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

Time and quantum mechanics have, each of them separately, captivated s- entists and laymen alike, as shown by the abundance of popular publications on “time” or on the many quantum mysteries or paradoxes. We too have been seduced by these two topics, and in particular by their combination. Indeed, the treatment of time in quantum mechanics is one of the important and challenging open questions in the foundations of quantum theory. This book describes the problems, and the attempts and achievements in de?ning, formalizing and measuring di?erent time quantities in quantum theory, such as the parametric (clock) time, tunneling times, decay times, dwell times, delay times, arrival times or jump times. The theoretical analysis of several of these quantities has been controversial and is still subject to debate. For example, there are literally hundreds of research papers on the tunneling time. In fact, the standard recipe to link the observables and the formalism does not seem to apply, at least in an obvious manner, to time observables. This has posed the challenge of extending the domain of ordinary quantum mechanics.