Sequence Of Weak Measurements Research Articles

Thermodynamics of quantum measurement and Maxwell's demon's arrow of time

We discuss the thermodynamic aspects of a single qubit based device, powered by weak quantum measurements, and feedback controlled by a quantum Maxwell's demon. We discuss both discrete and time-continuous operation of the measurement based device at finite temperature of the reservoir. In the discrete example where a demon acquires information via discrete weak measurements, we find that the thermodynamic variables including the heat exchanged, extractable work, and the entropy produced are completely determined by an information theoretic measure of the demon's perceived arrow of time. We also discuss a realistic time-continuous operation of the device where the feedback is applied after a sequence of weak measurements. In the time-continuous limit, we derive the exact finite-time statistics of work, heat and entropy changes along individual quantum trajectories of the quantum measurement process, and relate them to the demon's arrow of time.

Weak-measurement-induced phases and dephasing: Broken symmetry of the geometric phase

Coherent steering of a quantum state, induced by a sequence of weak measurements, has become an active area of theoretical and experimental study. For a closed steered trajectory, the underlying phase factors involve both geometrical and dynamical terms. Furthermore, considering the reversal of the order of the measurement sequence, such a phase comprises a symmetric and an antisymmetric term. Superseding common wisdom, we show that the symmetric and the antisymmetric components do not correspond to the dynamical and geometrical parts respectively. Addressing a broad class of measurement protocols, we further investigate the dependence of the induced phases on the measurement parameters (e.g., the measurement strength). We find transitions between different topologically distinct sectors, defined by integer-valued winding numbers, and show that the transitions are accompanied by diverging dephasing. We propose experimental protocols to observe these effects.

Experimental test of sequential weak measurements for certified quantum randomness extraction

Quantum nonlocality offers a secure way to produce random numbers: their unpredictability is intrinsic and can be certified just by observing the statistic of the measurement outcomes, without assumptions on how they are produced. To do this, entangled pairs are generated and measured to violate a Bell inequality with the outcome statistics. However, after a projective quantum measurement, entanglement is entirely destroyed and cannot be used again. This fact poses an upper bound to the number of random numbers that can be produced from each quantum state when projective measurements are employed. Instead, by using weak measurements, some entanglement can be maintained and reutilized, and a sequence of weak measurements can extract an unbounded amount of randomness from a single state as predicted in Phys. Rev. A 95, 020102(R) (2017). We study the feasibility of these weak measurements, analyze the robustness to imperfections in the quantum state they are applied to, and then test them using an optical setup based on polarization-entangled photon pairs. We show that the weak measurements are realizable, but can improve the performance of randomness generation only in close-to-ideal conditions.

Emergence of the geometric phase from quantum measurement back-action

The state vector representing a quantum system acquires a phase factor following an adiabatic evolution along a closed trajectory in phase space. This is the traditional example of a geometric phase, or Pancharatnam–Berry phase, a concept that has now been generalized beyond cyclic adiabatic evolutions to include generalized quantum measurements, and that has been experimentally measured in a variety of physical systems. However, a clear description of the relationship between the emergence of a geometric phase and the effects of a series of generalized quantum measurements on a quantum system has not yet been provided. Here we report that a sequence of weak measurements with continuously variable measurement strengths in a quantum optics experiment conclusively reveals that the quantum measurement back-action is the source of the geometric phase—that is, the stronger a quantum measurement, the larger the accumulated geometric phase. We furthermore find that in the limit of strong (projective) measurement there is a direct connection between the geometric phase and the sequential weak value, ordinarily associated with a series of weak quantum measurements. Following a closed evolution in the Hilbert space, the state vector of a quantum system accumulates a geometric phase factor. A series of weak measurements reveal the origin of this in the back-action of any quantum measurement.

Decomposing qubit positive-operator-valued measurements into continuous destructive weak measurements

It has been shown that any generalized measurement can be decomposed into a sequence of weak measurements corresponding to a stochastic process. However, the weak measurements may require almost arbitrary unitaries, which are unlikely to be realized by any real measurement device. Furthermore, many measurement processes are destructive, like photon counting procedures that terminate once all photons are consumed. One cannot expect to have full control of the evolution of a state under such destructive measurements, and the possible unitaries allow only a limited set of weak measurements. In this paper, we consider a qubit model of destructive weak measurements, which is a toy version of an optical cavity, in which the state of an electromagnetic field mode inside the cavity leaks out and is measured destructively while the vacuum state |0> leaks in to the cavity. At long times, the state of the qubit inevitably evolves to be |0>, and the only available control is the choice of measurement on the external ancilla system. Surprisingly, this very limited model can still perform an arbitrary projective measurement on the qubit in any basis, where the probability of getting an outcome satisfies the usual Born rule. Combining this method with probabilistic post processing, the result can be extended to any generalized measurement with commuting POVM elements. This implies, among other results, that any two-outcome POVM on a qubit can be decomposed into a sequence of destructive weak measurements by this restricted measurement device.

Weak stochastic ratchets and dynamic localization in measurement-induced quantum trajectories

We consider a qubit governed by a sequence of weak measurements, with the measurement strength modified in a time- and state-dependent manner. The resulting trajectory of the qubit in the phase space can be weakly controlled without any direct action on the qubit (control-free control), even only one fixed observable is measured. Here we show a possibility of a weak form of a stochastic ratchet, allowing to create an additional "force" without changing the corresponding effective average potential. Furthermore, if the weak measurement strength is significantly reduced in a way conditioned to some particular state, a dynamical localization near this state takes place. If the measurement strength is reduced to zero, a singularity appears, which behaves like an artificial basis state.

Weak Measurements Are Universal

It is well known that any projective measurement can be decomposed into a sequence of weak measurements, which cause only small changes to the state. Similar constructions for generalized measurements, however, have relied on the use of an ancilla system. We show that any generalized measurement can be decomposed into a sequence of weak measurements without the use of an ancilla, and give an explicit construction for these weak measurements. The measurement procedure has the structure of a random walk along a curve in state space, with the measurement ending when one of the end points is reached. This shows that any measurement can be generated by weak measurements, and hence that weak measurements are universal. This may have important applications to the theory of entanglement.

Quantum-optical weak measurements can visualize photon dynamics in real time

An experiment is proposed to visualize stroboscopically in real time the dynamics of a photon oscillating between two cavities. The visualization is implemented by a sequence of weak measurements, which are carried out by probing one of the cavities with a Rydberg atom and detecting a resulting phase shift by Ramsey interferometry. This way to measure the number of photons in a cavity was experimentally realized by Brune et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 976, 1990]. We suggest a feedback mechanism which minimizes the disturbance due to the measurement and enables a detection of the original evolution of the radiation field.