Optimal covariant measurement of momentum on a half line in quantum mechanics

Abstract

We cannot perform the projective measurement of a momentum on a half line since it is not an observable. Nevertheless, we would like to obtain some physical information of the momentum on a half line. We define an optimality for measurement as minimizing the variance between an inferred outcome of the measured system before a measuring process and a measurement outcome of the probe system after the measuring process, restricting our attention to the covariant measurement studied by Holevo [Rep. Math. Phys. 13, 379 (1978)]. Extending the domain of the momentum operator on a half line by introducing a two dimensional Hilbert space to be tensored, we make it self-adjoint and explicitly construct a model Hamiltonian for the measured and probe systems. By taking the partial trace over the newly introduced Hilbert space, the optimal covariant positive operator valued measure of a momentum on a half line is reproduced. We physically describe the measuring process to optimally evaluate the momentum of a particle on a half line. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.