Weak Values Beyond the Weak Limit: Measurement-Strength Invariance Under Post-Selection
Abstract
Weak values are conventionally extracted in the limit of vanishing measurement strength. At finite strength, the corresponding post-selected conditional averages generally acquire nonlinear corrections and need not retain their weak value interpretation. Here we identify a class of measurement protocols for which this expectation fails: the conditional value reconstructed from the measuring probe is exactly independent of the probe strength and therefore coincides with the real part of the weak value. We first analyze this phenomenon in the measurement--disturbance protocol introduced by Lund and Wiseman. We then establish conditions under which this invariance persists, showing that it is determined by the interplay between the probe interaction, a subsequent measurement interaction with an ancillary apparatus, and the final post-selection. These results demonstrate that weak coupling, although generally sufficient for accessing weak values, is not always necessary.
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BibTeX
@misc{andrei2026weak,
title = {{Weak Values Beyond the Weak Limit: Measurement-Strength Invariance Under Post-Selection}},
author = {Cosmin Andrei and Vlatko Vedral},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.22976},
eprint = {2609.22976},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22976},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Weak Values Beyond the Weak Limit: Measurement-Strength Invariance Under Post-Selection
AU - Cosmin Andrei
AU - Vlatko Vedral
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/19
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.22976
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.22976
AB - Weak values are conventionally extracted in the limit of vanishing measurement strength. At finite strength, the corresponding post-selected conditional averages generally acquire nonlinear corrections and need not retain their weak value interpretation. Here we identify a class of measurement protocols for which this expectation fails: the conditional value reconstructed from the measuring probe is exactly independent of the probe strength and therefore coincides with the real part of the weak value. We first analyze this phenomenon in the measurement--disturbance protocol introduced by Lund and Wiseman. We then establish conditions under which this invariance persists, showing that it is determined by the interplay between the probe interaction, a subsequent measurement interaction with an ancillary apparatus, and the final post-selection. These results demonstrate that weak coupling, although generally sufficient for accessing weak values, is not always necessary.
ER -