It is known that weak measurement can significantly amplify the mean of measurement results, sometimes out of the range limited in usual quantum measurement. This fact, as actively demonstrated recently in both theory and experiment, implies the possibility to estimate a very small parameter using the weak measurement technique. But does the weak measurement really bring about the increase of "information" for parameter estimation? This paper clarifies that, in a general situation, the answer is NO; more precisely, the weak measurement cannot further decrease the lower bound of the estimation error, i.e. the so-called Cramér-Rao bound, which is proportional to the inverse of the quantum Fisher information.
Weak-value amplification (WVA) has recently become an important technique for parameter estimation, owing to its ability to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio by amplifying extremely small signals with proper postselection strategies. In this paper, we propose an adaptive WVA scheme to achieve the highest Fisher information when using an unbalanced pointer. Different from previous schemes, the adaptive WVA scheme is associated with a real-time update on the postselection states with the help of feedback information from the outcomes, and the "extremely small" condition set on the parameter of i…
We measure a transverse momentum kick in a Sagnac interferometer using weak-value amplification with two postselections. The first postselection is controlled by a polarization dependent phase mismatch between both paths of a Sagnac interferometer and the second postselection is controlled by a polarizer at the exit port. By monitoring the darkport of the interferometer, we study the complementary amplification of the concatenated postselections, where the polarization extinction ratio is greater than the contrast of the spatial interference. In this case, we find an improvement in the amplifi…
We propose a new model of quantum computation which aims to speed up quantum algorithms assisted by the weak value amplification and ancillay quantum register with the pre- and postelection. Within this model, we show that a quantum computer can solve a data base search of N entries in one step with probability close to one for large N, provided the post-selection on the ancillary quantum register is successful. In this model, to search a data base of N entries, the number of qubits grows from n to 2n, but there is a huge reduction in time complexity. Physically, this can be understood as the …
We present a parameter estimation technique based on performing joint measurements of a weak interaction away from the weak-value-amplification approximation. Two detectors are used to collect full statistics of the correlations between two weakly entangled degrees of freedom. Without the need of postselection, the protocol resembles the anomalous amplification of an imaginary-weak-value-like response. The amplification is induced in the difference signal of both detectors allowing robustness to different sources of technical noise, and offering in addition the advantages of balanced signals f…
In common sense, postselected weak amplification must be related to destructive interference effect of the meter system, and a single photon exerts no effect on thermal field via cross-phasemodulation (XPM) interaction. In this Letter we present, for the first time, a thermal light cross-Kerr effect. Through analysis, we reveal two unexpected results: i) postselection and weak amplification can be explained at a classical level without destructive interference, and ii) weak amplification and weak value are not one thing. After postselection a new mixed light can be generated which is nonclassi…
Most studies for postselected weak measurement in optomechanical system focus on using a single photon as a measured system. However, we find that using weak coherent light instead of a single photon can also amplify the mirror's position displacement of one photon. In the WVA regime (Weak Value Amplification regime), the weak value of one photon can lie outside the eigenvalue spectrum, proportional to the difference of the mirror's position displacement between the successful and failed postselection and its successful postselection probability is dependent of the mean photon number of the co…
We study the possibility of varying the measured lifetime of a decaying particle based on the technique of weak value amplification in which an additional filtering process called postselection is performed. Our analysis made in a direct measurement scheme presented here shows that, for simple two-level systems, the lifetime may be prolonged more than three times compared to the original one, while it can also be shortened arbitrarily by a proper choice of postselection. This result is consistent with our previous analysis on the possible prolongation of the lifetime of B mesons that may be ob…
Nearly thirty years ago the possibility of anomalous weak amplfication (AWA) was revealed by Aharonov, Albert and Vaidman [1]. Recently two papers presents two AWA schemes which are beyond the traditional proposal given by them [14, 15]. At the first glance the two papers seems very different. Ref. [14] discusses the thermal light cross-Kerr effect and finds only postselection can give the amplification effect without interference of the postselected meter states, and Ref. [15] shows that only weak interaction itself can give the amplification effect without postselection. Here the relationshi…
In this article we present an experimental proposal for the estimation of an optomechanical parameter in the presence of noise. The estimation is based on the technique of weak value amplification which can enlarge the radiation pressure effect of a single photon on a mechanical oscillator. In our setup we show that the weak value amplification technique is preferable for the estimation over a method that relies on a strong measurement with postselection, because the first method does not require a good prior knowledge of the parameter we wish to estimate, while both strategies reach the same …
Weak measurement with a coherent state pointer and in combination with an orthogonal postselection can lead to a surprising amplification effect, and we give a fire-new physical mechanism about the weak measurement in order to understand this effect. Moreover, this physical mechanism is a general result and based on it, we present a scheme of optomechanical system to implement weak measurement amplification on an orthogonal postselection.
The experimental verification of quantum features, such as entanglement, at large scales is extremely challenging because of environment-induced decoherence. Indeed, measurement techniques for demonstrating the quantumness of multiparticle systems in the presence of losses are difficult to define and, if not sufficiently accurate, they provide wrong conclusions. We present a Bell test where one photon of an entangled pair is amplified and then detected by threshold detectors, whose signals undergo postselection. The amplification is performed by a classical machine, which produces a fully sepa…
The application of postselection to a weak quantum measurement leads to the phenomenon of weak values. Expressed in units of the measurement strength, the displacement of a quantum coherent measuring device is ordinarily bounded by the eigenspectrum of the measured observable. Postselection can enable an interference effect that moves the average displacement far outside this range, bringing practical benefits in certain situations. Employing the Fisher information metric, we argue that the amplified displacement offers no fundamental metrological advantage, due to the necessarily reduced prob…
We study quantum measurement with preselection and postselection, and derive the precise expressions of the measurement results without any restriction on the coupling strength between the system and the measuring device. For a qubit system, we derive the maximum pointer shifts by choosing appropriate initial and finial states. A significant amplification effect is obtained when the interaction between the system and the measuring device is very weak, and typical ideal quantum measurement results are obtained when the interaction is strong. The improvement of the signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) and…
Weak measurement is a novel technique for parameter estimation with higher precision. In this paper we develop a general theory for the parameter estimation based on weak measurement technique with arbitrary postselection. The previous weak value amplification model and the joint weak measurement model are two special cases in our theory. Applying the developed theory, the time-delay estimation is investigated in both theory and experiment. Experimental results shows that when the time-delay is ultra small, the joint weak measurement scheme outperforms the weak value amplification scheme, and …
To describe the pre- and post-selected quantum ensembles, a complex quantity called the weak value of an operator is used. The weak value is highly controversial due to the fact that it is not bounded by the possible eigenvalues of the corresponding operator. Nevertheless, the obtaining of the anomalous weak value is regarded as a powerful technique in the quantum interferometry nowadays. Here it is shown that the postselection on a quantum system recovers a completely hidden interference effect in the measurement apparatus. Studying the interference pattern shows the optimal settings for the …
We present a scheme for achieving amplification of the displacement of the mirror in optomechanical cavity using single-photon postselection where the mirror is initially prepared in squeezed coherent state. The amplification depends on the enhanced fluctuations of the squeezed coherent state, and it is is caused by the noncommutativity of quantum mechanics relying on the squeezed coherent state, which can not be explained by the standard weak measurement [1,25].
Large weak values have been used to amplify the sensitivity of a linear response signal for detecting changes in a small parameter, which has also enabled a simple method for precise parameter estimation. However, producing a large weak value requires a low postselection probability for an ancilla degree of freedom, which limits the utility of the technique. We propose an improvement to this method that uses entanglement to increase the efficiency. We show that by entangling and postselecting $n$ ancillas, the postselection probability can be increased by a factor of $n$ while keeping the weak…
We investigate the weak measurement experiment demonstrated by Ritchie et al. [N. W. M. Ritchie, J. G. Story, and R. G. Hulet, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 1107 (1991)] from the viewpoint of the statistical hypothesis testing for the weak-value amplification proposed by Susa and Tanaka [Y. Susa and S. Tanaka, Phys. Rev. A 92, 012112 (2015)]. We conclude that the weak-value amplification is a better method to determine whether the crystal used in the experiment is birefringent than the measurement without postselection, when the angles of two polarizers are almost orthogonal. This result gives a physic…
We study the coherent propagation of light whose dynamics is governed by the effective Schrödinger equation derived in a magneto-optically-manipulated atomic ensemble with a four-level tripod configuration for electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The small transverse deflection of an optical beam, which is ultra-sensitive to the EIT effect, could be drastically amplified via a weak measurement with an appropriate preselection and postselection of the polarization state. The physical mechanism is explained as the effect of wavepacket reshaping, which results in an enlarged group velo…
In this paper, we explore the possibilities of realizing weak value amplification (WVA) using purely atomic degrees of freedom. Our scheme identifies the internal electronic states and external motional states of a single trapped $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ion as the system degree and pointer degree respectively, and their controllable weak coupling is provided by a bichromatic light field. In our experimental demonstration, by performing appropriate postselection on the internal states, a position displacement of 4 angstroms (in phase space) of the trapped ion is amplified to 10 nanometers. The sensitivit…
Most studies for postselected weak measurement focus on using pure Gaussian state as a pointer, which can only give an amplification limit reaching the level of the ground state fluctuation. When the pointer is initialised in a thermal state, we find that the amplification limit after the postselection can reach the level of thermal fluctuation, indicating that the amplification effect achieving the level of thermal fluctuation is also increased with the temperature grow, and also give the amplification mechanism different from the one with pure Gaussian state pointer. To illustrate these resu…
The technique of weak value amplification, proposed by Aharonov et al. in 1988, has been applied for various fields of physics for the purpose of precision measurement, which is made possible by exploiting the freedom of `postselection' specifying actively the final state in the physical process. Here we report for the first time the feasibility of utilizing the technique of weak value amplification in high energy particle physics, especially in measuring the CP-violating parameters in B meson decays, where the effective lifetime of the decay mode is expected to be prolonged statistically due …
Weak-value amplification employs postselection to enhance the measurement of small parameters of interest. The amplification comes at the expense of reduced success probability, hindering the utility of this technique as a tool for practical metrology. Following other quantum technologies that display a quantum advantage, we formalize a quantum advantage in the success probability and present a scheme based on non-linear collective Hamiltonians that shows a super-extensive growth in success probability while simultaneously displaying an extensive growth in the weak value. We propose an experim…
In conventional measurement, to reach the greatest accuracy of parameter estimation, all samples must be measured since each independent sample contains the same quantum Fisher information. In postselected metrology, postselection can concentrate the quantum Fisher information of the initial samples into a tiny post-selected sub-ensemble. It has been proven that this quantum advantage can not be realized in any classically commuting theory. In this work, we present that the advantage of postselection in weak value amplification (WVA) can not be achieved without quantum coherence. The quantum c…
We demonstrate the active suppression of transmon qubit dephasing induced by dispersive measurement, using parametric amplification and analog feedback. By real-time processing of the homodyne record, the feedback controller reverts the stochastic quantum phase kick imparted by the measurement on the qubit. The feedback operation matches a model of quantum trajectories with measurement efficiency $\tildeη \approx 0.5$, consistent with the result obtained by postselection. We overcome the bandwidth limitations of the amplification chain by numerically optimizing the signal processing in the fee…
The technical merits of weak value amplification techniques are analyzed. We consider models of several different types of technical noise in an optical context and show that weak value amplification techniques (which only use a small fraction of the photons) compare favorably with standard techniques (which uses all of them). Using the Fisher information metric, we demonstrate that weak value techniques can put all of the Fisher information about the detected parameter into a small portion of the events and show how this fact alone gives technical advantages. We go on to consider a time corre…
Due to its connection to the diffeomorphism group, nonlinear quantum mechanics may play an important role in quantum geometry. The Doebner-Goldin nonlinearity (arising from representations of the diffeomorphism group) amplifies nonlocal signaling effects under extreme localization, suggesting that even if greatly suppressed at low energies, such effects may be significant at the Planck scale. This offers new perspectives on Planck-scale physics.
Using standard linear response relations, we derive the quantum limit on the sensitivity of a generic linear-response position detector, and the noise temperature of a generic linear amplifier. Particular emphasis is placed on the detector's effective temperature and damping effects; the former quantity directly determines the dimensionless power gain of the detector. Unlike the approach used in the seminal work of Caves [Phys. Rev. D, 26, 1817 (1982)], the linear-response approach directly involves the noise properties of the detector, and allows one to derive simple necessary and sufficient …
In a seminal work, Aharonov, Albert, and Vaidman showed that by having a weak interaction between a system and a detecting apparatus, the average output of the latter could be much larger than the maximum eigenvalue of the observed quantity (times the amplification factor). This does not always happen, however: the observed system must subsequently undergo a second measurement, on the output of which the result of the first one is conditioned. This procedure is known as postselection. On the other hand, linear response theory describes how the observables of a quan- tum system change upon pert…
We investigate whether the heart rate can be treated as a semi-random source with the aim of amplification by quantum devices. We use a semi-random source model called $ε$-Santha-Vazirani source, which can be amplified via quantum protocols to obtain fully private random sequence. We analyze time intervals between consecutive heartbeats obtained from Holter electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings of people of different sex and age. We propose several transformations of the original time series into binary sequences. We have performed different statistical randomness tests and estimated quality para…
Weak value amplification (WVA) is a technique in which one can magnify the apparent strength of a measurement signal. Some have claimed that WVA can outperform more conventional measurement schemes in parameter estimation. Nonetheless, a significant body of theoretical work has challenged this perspective, suggesting WVA to be fundamentally sub-optimal. Optimal measurements may not be practical, however. Two practical considerations that have been conjectured to afford a benefit to WVA over conventional measurement are certain types of noise and detector saturation. Here, we report a theoretic…
Grover's algorithm is an approximation of imaginary-time evolution
Institute of Physics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院物理研究所）；Centre for Quantum Science and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院量子科学与工程中心）；Quantum Computing Center, Keio University（庆应义塾大学量子计算中心）；School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University（南洋理工大学物理与数学科学学院）；Centre for Quantum Technologies, Nanyang Technological University（南洋理工大学量子技术中心）
From its very beginning quantum theory has been revealing extraordinary and counter-intuitive phenomena, such as wave-particle duality, Schrödinger cats and quantum non-locality. In the study of quantum measurement, a process involving pre- and postselection of quantum ensembles in combination with a weak interaction was found to yield unexpected outcomes. This scheme, usually referred to as "weak measurements", can not only be used as an amplification technique and for minimal disturbing measurements, but also for the exploration of quantum paradoxes. Recently the quantum Cheshire Cat has att…
The present work reports on an extended research endeavor focused on the theoretical and experimental realization of a macroscopic quantum superposition (MQS) made up with photons. As it is well known, this intriguing, fundamental quantum condition is at the core of a famous argument conceived by Erwin Schroedinger, back in 1935. The main experimental challenge to the actual realization of this object resides generally on the unavoidable and uncontrolled interactions with the environment, i.e. the decoherence leading to the cancellation of any evidence of the quantum features associated with t…
The investigation of the ultimate limits imposed by quantum mechanics on amplification represents an important topic both on a fundamental level and from the perspective of potential applications. We propose here a novel setup for an optomechanical amplifier, constituted by a mechanical resonator dispersively coupled to an optomechanical cavity asymmetrically driven around both mechanical sidebands. We show that, on general grounds, the present amplifier operates in a novel regime-- which we here call phase-mixing amplification. At the same time, for a suitable choice of parameters, the amplif…
Quantum-limited microwave parametric amplifiers are genuine key pillars for rising quantum technologies and in general for applications that rely on the successful readout of weak microwave signals by adding only the minimum amount of noise allowed by quantum mechanics. In this perspective, after providing a brief overview on the different families of parametric microwave amplifiers, we focus on traveling wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs), underlining the key achievements of the last years and the present open challenges. We discuss also possible new research directions beyond amplification s…
We study the harvesting of quantum and classical correlations from a hot scalar field in a periodic cavity by a pair of spatially separated oscillator-detectors. Specifically, we utilize non-perturbative and exact (non-numerical) techniques to solve for the evolution of the detectors-field system and then we examine how the entanglement, Gaussian quantum discord, and mutual information obtained by the detectors change with the temperature of the field. While (as expected) the harvested entanglement rapidly decays to zero as temperature is increased, we find remarkably that both the mutual info…
The stochastic evolution of quantum systems during measurement is arguably the most enigmatic feature of quantum mechanics. Measuring a quantum system typically steers it towards a classical state, destroying any initial quantum superposition and any entanglement with other quantum systems. Remarkably, the measurement of a shared property between non-interacting quantum systems can generate entanglement starting from an uncorrelated state. Of special interest in quantum computing is the parity measurement, which projects a register of quantum bits (qubits) to a state with an even or odd total …
In a weak measurement, the average output $\langle o\rangle$ of a probe that measures an observable $\hat{A}$ of a quantum system undergoing both a preparation in a state $ρ_i$ and a postselection in a state $E_\mathrm{f}$ is, to a good approximation, a function of the weak value $A_w=\mathrm{Tr} [E_f \hat{A} ρ_i]/\mathrm{Tr}[E_fρ_i]$, a complex number. For a fixed coupling $λ$, when the overlap $\mathrm{Tr}[E_fρ_i]$ is very small, $A_w$ diverges, but $\langle o\rangle$ stays finite, often tending to zero for symmetry reasons. This paper answers the questions: what is the weak value that maxim…
We ask how quantum theory compares to more general physical theories from the point of view of dimension. To do so, we first give two model independent definition of the dimension of physical systems, based on measurements and on the capacity of storing information. While both definitions are equivalent in classical and quantum mechanics, they are in general different in generalized probabilistic theories. We discuss in detail the case of a theory known as 'boxworld', and show that such a theory features systems with a dimension mismatch. This dimension mismatch can be made arbitrarily large b…
We address on general quantum-statistical grounds the problem of optimal detection of the Unruh-Hawking effect. We show that the effect signatures are magnified up to potentially observable levels if the scalar field to be probed has high mean energy from an inertial perspective: The Unruh-Hawking effect acts like an amplification channel. We prove that a field in a Fock inertial state, probed via photon counting by a non-inertial detector, realizes the optimal strategy attaining the ultimate sensitivity allowed by quantum mechanics for the observation of the effect. We define the parameter re…
