What Happens When You Measure a Superposition State in Harmonic Oscillators?

daveyman
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I think this is a basic question:

If a state is in a superposition of energy eigen states of the harmonic oscillator, what will a single measurement yield?

Will it be <H>?
 
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A measurement of what? I guess you mean an energy measurement. A single measurement would yield one of possible energy eigenvalues. The probability of a single measurement yielding a particular energy eigenvalue is equal to the modulus squared of the coefficient of expansion for that particular eigenstate in the superposition state.
 
Ie. Not the expectation value of the energy.
 

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