{ "cells": [ { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "# How to Think about Entanglement\n", "\n", "## Part 2: Clocks" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "In the normal formulation of quantum mechanics, time enters the equations as a classical variable. For example, we can introduce time dependence to a state by writing: \n", "\n", "\\\\(|\\psi(t)\\rangle = e^{-iEt} |\\psi\\rangle\\\\), \n", "\n", "where E is the energy operator and t is the apparently classical time measured in your lab. But time should be quantized like everything else, right? Rumor has it that just as position and momentum are conjugate variables, energy and time are supposed to be conjugate to each other. Concretely, if we Fourier transform the position operator, we get the momentum operator: so if we Fourier transform the energy operator, we should get a \"time operator.\" But it's not clear how this operator relates to the classical time variable in the Schrodinger equation above." ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "The answer, ultimately, is that we need to consider the clock itself as a quantum system which is entangled with our quantum system of interest. We shall see how the ideas we developed in the last section (re: steering) come into play in a very natural way. \n", "\n", "In other words, suppose we have a quantum system $A$, with an associated energy operator $E_{A}$. Ultimately, we'd like a quantum clock $C$ to parameterize the time evolved states of our system A via entanglement, so that if we project the clock $C$ into all of its \"clock states,\" and look to see how $A$ is steered due to entanglement, we want to find $A$ to be in the appropriately time evolved state re: the Schrodinger equation.\n", "\n", "