I know there are articles that give a full treatment of the math, but I'm more interested in the concept. I get that, in the classical picture, we are measuring the oscillation frequency of the electron in the trap, but that's a classical description. Quantum mechanically, I guess we are measuring some kind of oscillation of the wave function?
Furthermore, when someone uses a Penning trap to measure $g - 2$, don't they get a continuous reading on a scope, which tells them the cyclotron frequency? So the electron is being measured continuously. Doesn't that mean the wavefunction is being continually collapsed, and if so, what is the observable onto which it is being collapsed?
I would also like to understand this in terms of the QED path integral if possible -- again, in general terms, not with heavy math.
