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arXiv · 2002.01876

Escape from the Quantum Pigeon Conundrum

Gabor Kunstatter·Jonathan Ziprick·Victoria McNab·Alexander Rennie·Connor Speidel·Jovin Toews
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Abstract

It has recently been argued in Aharonov et. al. (2016) that quantum mechanics violates the Pigeon Counting Principle (PCP) which states that if one distributes three pigeons among two boxes there must be at least two pigeons in one of the boxes. However, this conclusion cannot justified by rigorous theoretical arguments. The issue is further complicated by experimental confirmation of the transition amplitudes predicted in this paper that nevertheless do not support the conclusion of PCP violation. Here we prove via a set of operator identities that the PCP is not violated within quantum mechanics, regardless of interpretation.

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Gabor Kunstatter, Jonathan Ziprick, Victoria McNab, Alexander Rennie, Connor Speidel, Jovin Toews. 2020-02-05. Escape from the Quantum Pigeon Conundrum. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physleta.2020.126686

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