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In quantum mechanics, the expectation value is the probabilistic expected value of the result (measurement) of an experiment. It can be thought of as an average of all the possible outcomes of a measurement as weighted by their likelihood, and as such it is not the most probable value of a measurement; indeed the expectation value may have zero probability of occurring (e.g. measurements which ...
This provides us with a method for calculating the expected values of many microscopic quantities. We add the quantity artificially to the microstate energies (or, in the language of quantum mechanics, to the Hamiltonian), calculate the new partition function and expected value, and then set λ to zero in the final
Any definition of expected value may be extended to define an expected value of a multidimensional random variable, i.e. a random vector X. It is defined component by component, as E[X] i = E[X i]. Similarly, one may define the expected value of a random matrix X with components X ij by E[X] ij = E[X ij].
The old quantum theory is a collection of results from the years 1900–1925 [23] which predate modern quantum mechanics. The theory was never complete or self-consistent, but was rather a set of heuristic corrections to classical mechanics. [24] The theory is now understood as a semi-classical approximation [25] to modern quantum mechanics. [26]
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory that describes the behavior of nature at and below the scale of atoms. [2]: 1.1 It is the foundation of all quantum physics, which includes quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science. Quantum mechanics can describe many systems that classical physics cannot.
Dirac's rule of thumb suggests that statements in quantum mechanics which contain a commutator correspond to statements in classical mechanics where the commutator is supplanted by a Poisson bracket multiplied by iħ. This makes the operator expectation values obey corresponding classical equations of motion, provided the Hamiltonian is at most ...
One of the most widely used examples of an observable physical effect that results from the vacuum expectation value of an operator is the Casimir effect. This concept is important for working with correlation functions in quantum field theory. It is also important in spontaneous symmetry breaking. Examples are:
The phenomenology of quantum physics arose roughly between 1895 and 1915, and for the 10 to 15 years before the development of quantum mechanics (around 1925) physicists continued to think of quantum theory within the confines of what is now called classical physics, and in particular within the same mathematical structures.