Observable

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In physics, an observable is a dynamic variable that can be measured. Examples include position and
momentum. In systems governed by classical mechanics, it is a real-valued function on the set of all possible
system states. In quantum physics, it is an operator, or gauge, where the property of the system state can be
determined by some sequence of physical operations. For example, these operations might involve submitting
the system to various electromagnetic fields and eventually reading a value.

Physically meaningful observables must also satisfy transformation laws which relate observations performed
by different observers in different frames of reference. These transformation laws are automorphisms of the
state space, that is bijective transformations which preserve some mathematical property.

Contents
1 Quantum mechanics
2 Incompatibility of observables in quantum mechanics
3 See also
4 Further reading

Quantum mechanics
In quantum physics, the relation between system state and the value of an observable requires some basic linear
algebra for its description. In the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics, states are given by non-zero
vectors in a Hilbert space V (where two vectors are considered to specify the same state if, and only if, they are
scalar multiples of each other) and observables are given by self-adjoint operators on V. However, as indicated
below, not every self-adjoint operator corresponds to a physically meaningful observable. For the case of a
system of particles, the space V consists of functions called wave functions or state vectors.

In the case of transformation laws in quantum mechanics, the requisite automorphisms are unitary (or
antiunitary) linear transformations of the Hilbert space V. Under Galilean relativity or special relativity, the
mathematics of frames of reference is particularly simple, and in fact restricts considerably the set of physically
meaningful observables.

In quantum mechanics, measurement of observables exhibits some seemingly unintuitive properties.

Specifically, if a system is in a state described by a vector in a Hilbert space, the measurement process affects
the state in a non-deterministic, but statistically predictable way. In particular, after a measurement is applied,
the state description by a single vector may be destroyed, being replaced by a statistical ensemble. The
irreversible nature of measurement operations in quantum physics is sometimes referred to as the measurement
problem and is described mathematically by quantum operations. By the structure of quantum operations, this
description is mathematically equivalent to that offered by relative state interpretation where the original
system is regarded as a subsystem of a larger system and the state of the original system is given by the partial
trace of the state of the larger system.

In quantum mechanics each dynamical variable (e.g. position, translational momentum, orbital angular
momentum, spin, total angular momentum, energy, etc.) is associated with a Hermitian operator that acts on the
state of the quantum system and whose eigenvalues correspond to the possible values of the dynamical
variable. For example, suppose is an eigenket (eigenvector) of the observable , with eigenvalue , and
exists in a d-dimensional Hilbert space. Then

=
This eigenket equation says that if a measurement of the observable is made while the system of interest is in
the state , then the observed value of that particular measurement must return the eigenvalue with certainty.
However, if the system of interest is in the general state , then the eigenvalue is returned with
probability (Born rule). One must note that the above definition is somewhat dependent upon our
convention of choosing real numbers to represent real physical quantities. Indeed, just because dynamical
variables are "real" and not "unreal" in the metaphysical sense does not mean that they must correspond to real
numbers in the mathematical sense.

To be more precise, the dynamical variable/observable is a (not necessarily bounded) Hermitian operator in a
Hilbert space and thus is represented by a Hermitian matrix if the space is finite-dimensional. In an infinite-
dimensional Hilbert space, the observable is represented by a symmetric operator, which may not be defined
everywhere (i.e. its domain is not the whole space - there exist some states that are not in the domain of the
operator). The reason for such a change is that in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, the operator becomes
unbounded, which means that it no longer has a largest eigenvalue. This is not the case in a finite-dimensional
Hilbert space, where every operator is bounded - it has a largest eigenvalue. For example, if we consider the
position of a point particle moving along a line, this particle's position variable can take on any number on the
real-line, which is uncountably infinite. Since the eigenvalue of an observable represents a real physical
quantity for that particular dynamical variable, then we must conclude that there is no largest eigenvalue for the
position observable in this uncountably infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, since the field we're working over
consists of the real-line. Nonetheless, whether we are working in an infinite-dimensional or finite-dimensional
Hilbert space, the role of an observable in quantum mechanics is to assign real numbers to outcomes of
particular measurements; this means that only certain measurements can determine the value of an observable
for some state of a quantum system. In classical mechanics, any measurement can be made to determine the
value of an observable.

Incompatibility of observables in quantum mechanics

A crucial difference between classical quantities and quantum mechanical observables is that the latter may not
be simultaneously measurable. This is mathematically expressed by non-commutativity of the corresponding
operators, to the effect that

This inequality expresses a dependence of measurement results on the order in which measurements of
observables and are performed. Observables corresponding to non-commutative operators are called
incompatible.

See also
Measure (physics)
Observable universe
Observer (quantum physics)

Further reading
Auyang, Sunny Y. (1995). How is quantum field theory possible?. New York,N.Y.: Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0195093452.
Ballentine, Leslie E. (2014). Quantum mechanics : a modern development (Repr. ed.). World Scientific
Publishing Co. ISBN 9789814578608.
von Neumann, John (1996). Mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. Translated by Robert T.
Beyer (12. print., 1. paperback print. ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691028934.
Varadarajan, V.S. (2007). Geometry of quantum theory (2nd ed.). New York: Springer.
ISBN 9780387493862.
 Weyl, Hermann (2009). "Appendix C: Quantum physics and causality". Philosophy of mathematics and
natural science. Revised and augmented English edition based on a translation by Olaf Helmer.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. pp. 253265. ISBN 9780691141206.

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