Quantum Mechanical Indeterminacy and Conservation Laws

Abstract

Conservation laws are discussed in conjunction with quantum-mechanical indeterminacies of the corresponding observables. The considered examples show that the connections between energy and its indeterminacy may be quite intricate. The indeterminacies of the parts of a composite system may be correlated in such a way that the net value of the considered observable is definite. This may be the case with specific entangled superposition of eigenstates in a composite system. In some cases the fact of energy conservation cannot be convincingly established and generally the concept of conserving observable is not universally defined to embrace all possible situations under one rule. Keywords: energy, conservation, indeterminacy, photon