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In quantum physics, a very short-lived, unobservable quantum state From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In quantum physics, a virtual state is a very short-lived, unobservable quantum state.[1]
In many quantum processes a virtual state is an intermediate state, sometimes described as "imaginary"[2] in a multi-step process that mediates otherwise forbidden transitions. Since virtual states are not eigenfunctions of any operator,[3] normal parameters such as occupation, energy and lifetime need to be qualified. No measurement of a system will show one to be occupied,[4] but they still have lifetimes derived from uncertainty relations.[5][6] While each virtual state has an associated energy, no direct measurement of its energy is possible[7] but various approaches have been used to make some measurements (for example see[8] and related work[9][10] on virtual state spectroscopy) or extract other parameters using measurement techniques that depend upon the virtual state's lifetime.[11] The concept is quite general and can be used to predict and describe experimental results in many areas including Raman spectroscopy,[12] non-linear optics generally,[5] various types of photochemistry,[13] and nuclear processes.[14]
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