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arXiv · 2007.00785

The appearance of particle tracks in detectors

Miguel Ballesteros·Tristan Benoist·Martin Fraas·Jürg Fröhlich
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Abstract

The phenomenon that a quantum particle propagating in a detector, such as a Wilson cloud chamber, leaves a track close to a classical trajectory is analyzed. We introduce an idealized quantum-mechanical model of a charged particle that is periodically illuminated by pulses of laser light resulting in repeated indirect measurements of the approximate position of the particle. For this model we present a mathematically rigorous analysis of the appearance of particle tracks, assuming that the Hamiltonian of the particle is quadratic in the position- and momentum operators, as for a freely moving particle or a harmonic oscillator.

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Miguel Ballesteros, Tristan Benoist, Martin Fraas, Jürg Fröhlich. 2020-07-01. The appearance of particle tracks in detectors. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00220-021-03935-0

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