The Free Nonrelativistic Quantum Particle and Localized Detectors

Many introductions to quantum mechanics use the position operator to formulate a model of a single nonrelativistic quantum particle with zero spin. This article re-introduces that model using particle-detection observables instead. This clarifies how the model relates to the general principles of quantum theory (articles 03431) and quantum field theory (article 21916).

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Revision history

2024-05-22 (changed the title and abstract to be more descriptive)
2023-11-12 (replaced Hamiltonian with hamiltonian)
2022-06-11 (updated references to other articles in this series to link to html abstract pages instead of to pdfs. Didn't change the version number/date)
2022-05-23 (added two sentences about the Schrödinger picture, removed one unimportant footnote to make room for two new sentences about other observables)
2022-05-09 (minor cleanup, added some clarifications, replaced one example)
2022-05-08 (first version)

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updated 2025-04-20

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The Free Nonrelativistic Quantum Particle and Localized Detectors

Revision history