We consider the evolution of a quantum simple harmonic oscillator in a general Gaussian state under simultaneous time-continuous weak position and momentum measurements. We deduce the stochastic evolution equations for position and momentum expectation values and the covariance matrix elements from the system's characteristic function. By generalizing the Chantasri-Dressel-Jordan (CDJ) formalism (Chantasri et al.~2013 and 2015) to this continuous variable system, we construct its stochastic Hamiltonian and action. Action extremization gives us the equations for the most-likely readout paths and quantum trajectories. For steady states of the covariance matrix elements, the analytical solutions for these most-likely paths are obtained. Using the CDJ formalism we calculate final state probability densities exactly starting from any initial state. We also demonstrate the agreement between the optimal path solutions and the averages of simulated clustered stochastic trajectories. Our results provide insights into the time dependence of the mechanical energy of the system during the measurement process, motivating their importance for quantum measurement engine/refrigerator experiments.
We discuss the problem of estimating a frequency via N-qubit probes undergoing independent dephasing channels that can be continuously monitored via homodyne or photo-detection. We derive the corresponding analytical solutions for the conditional states, for generic initial states and for arbitrary efficiency of the continuous monitoring. For the detection strategies considered, we show that: i) in the case of perfect continuous detection, the quantum Fisher information (QFI) of the conditional states is equal to the one obtained in the noiseless dynamics; ii) for smaller detection efficiencie…
We review the introduction of likelihood functions and Fisher information in classical estimation theory, and we show how they can be defined in a very similar manner within quantum measurement theory. We show that the stochastic master equations describing the dynamics of a quantum system subject to a definite set of measurements provides likelihood functions for unknown parameters in the system dynamics, and we show that the estimation error, given by the Fisher information, can be identified by stochastic master equation simulations. For large parameter spaces we describe and illustrate the…
We examine most-likely paths between initial and final states for diffusive quantum trajectories in continuously monitored pure-state qubits, obtained as extrema of a stochastic path integral. We demonstrate the possibility of "multipaths" in the dynamics of continuously-monitored qubit systems, wherein multiple most-likely paths travel between the same pre- and post-selected states over the same time interval. Most-likely paths are expressed as solutions to a Hamiltonian dynamical system. The onset of multipaths may be determined by analyzing the evolution of a Lagrange manifold in this phase…
We predict that continuously monitored quantum dynamics can be chaotic. The optimal paths between past and future boundary conditions can diverge exponentially in time when there is time-dependent evolution and continuous weak monitoring. Optimal paths are defined by extremizing the global probability density to move between two boundary conditions. We investigate the onset of chaos in pure-state qubit systems with optimal paths generated by a periodic Hamiltonian. Specifically, chaotic quantum dynamics are demonstrated in a scheme where two non-commuting observables of a qubit are continuousl…
The dynamics of a quantum anharmonic oscillator whose position is monitored by a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in a symmetric double well potential is studied. The (non-exponential) decoherence induced on the oscillator by the measuring device is analysed. A detailed quasiclassical and quantum analysis is presented. In the first case, for an arbitrary initial coherent state, two different decoherence regimes are observed: An initial Gaussian decay followed by a power law decay for longer times. The characteristic time scales of both regimes are reported. Analytical approximated expres…
We analyze a recent protocol for the transmission of quantum states via a dual spin chain [Burgarth and Bose, Phys. Rev. A 71, 052315 (2005)] under the constraint that the receiver's measurement strength is finite. That is, we consider the channel where the ideal, instantaneous and complete von Neumann measurements are replaced with a more realistic continuous measurement. We show that for optimal performance the measurement strength must be "tuned" to the channel spin-spin coupling, and once this is done, one is able to achieve a similar transmission rate to that obtained with ideal measureme…
Monitoring a quantum observable continuously in time produces a stochastic measurement record that noisily tracks the observable. For a classical process such noise may be reduced to recover an average signal by minimizing the mean squared error between the noisy record and a smooth dynamical estimate. We show that for a monitored qubit this usual procedure returns unusual results. While the record seems centered on the expectation value of the observable during causal generation, examining the collected past record reveals that it better approximates a moving-mean Gaussian stochastic process …
CDJ-Pontryagin Optimal Control for General Continuously Monitored Quantum Systems
University of Rochester（罗切斯特大学）；Center for Coherence and Quantum Optics, University of Rochester（罗切斯特大学相干性与量子光学中心）；Institute for Quantum Studies, Chapman University（查普曼大学量子研究所）；Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校化学系）；Berkeley Center for Quantum Information and Computation（伯克利量子信息与计算中心）；Chapman University（查普曼大学）
We study the effects of continuous measurement of the field mode during the collapse and revival of spin Schrödinger cat states in the Tavis-Cummings model of N qubits (two-level quantum systems) coupled to a field mode. We show that a compromise between relatively weak and relatively strong continuous measurement will not completely destroy the collapse and revival dynamics while still providing enough signal-to-noise resolution to identify the signatures of the process in the measurement record. This type of measurement would in principle allow the verification of the occurrence of the colla…
In a Bayesian analysis, the likelihood that specific candidate parameters govern the evolution of a quantum system are conditioned on the outcome of measurements which, in turn, cause measurement backaction on the state of the system [M. Tsang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 170502 (2012)]. Specializing to the distinction of two candidate hypotheses, we study the achievements of continuous monitoring of the radiation emitted by a quantum system followed by an optimal projective measurement on its conditioned final state. Our study of the radiative decay of a driven two-level system shows an intricate i…
We consider a quantum particle on a one dimensional lattice subject to weak local measurements and study its stochastic dynamics conditioned on the measurement outcomes. Depending on the measurement strength our analysis of the quantum trajectories reveals dynamical regimes reach- ing from quasi-coherent wave packet oscillations to a Zeno-type dynamics. We analyse how these dynamical regimes are directly reflected in the spectral properties of the noisy measurement records.
We put forth a unifying formalism for the description of the thermodynamics of continuously monitored systems, where measurements are only performed on the environment connected to a system. We show, in particular, that the conditional and unconditional entropy production, which quantify the degree of irreversibility of the open system's dynamics, are related to each other by the Holevo quantity. This, in turn, can be further split into an information gain rate and loss rate, which provide conditions for the existence of informational steady-states (ISSs), i.e. stationary states of a condition…
Fluctuation theorems allow one to make generalised statements about the behaviour of thermodynamic quantities in systems that are driven far from thermal equilibrium. In this article we use Crooks' fluctuation theorem to understand the entropy production of a continuously measured, zero-temperature quantum system; namely an optical cavity measured via homodyne detection. At zero temperature, if one uses the classical definition of inverse temperature $β$, then the entropy production becomes divergent. Our analysis shows that the entropy production can be well defined at zero temperature by con…
We investigate the dynamics of a quantum oscillator, whose evolution is monitored by a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) trapped in a symmetric double well potential. It is demonstrated that the oscillator may experience various degrees of decoherence depending on the variable being measured and the state in which the BEC is prepared. These range from a `coherent' regime in which only the variances of the oscillator position and momentum are affected by measurement, to a slow (power law) or rapid (Gaussian) decoherence of the mean values themselves.
It is shown that quantum fluctuation theorems remain unaffected if measurements of any kind and number of observables are performed during the action of a force protocol. That is, although the backward and forward probabilities entering the fluctuation theorems are both altered by these measurements, their ratio remains unchanged. This observation allows to describe the measurement of fluxes through interfaces and, in this way, to bridge the gap between the current theory, based on only two measurements performed at the beginning and end of the protocol, and experiments that are based on conti…
Gaussian states of quantum oscillators are fully characterized by the mean values and the covariance matrix of their quadrature observables. We consider the dynamics of a system of oscillators subject to interactions, damping, and continuous probing which maintain their Gaussian state property. Such dynamics is found in many physical systems that can therefore be efficiently described by the ensuing effective representation of the density matrix $ρ(t)$. Our probabilistic knowledge about the outcome of measurements on a quantum system at time $t$ is not only governed by $ρ(t)$ conditioned on th…
The quantum state of a superconducting transmon qubit inside a three-dimensional cavity is monitored by reflection of a microwave field on the cavity. The information inferred from the measurement record is incorporated in a density matrix $ρ_t$, which is conditioned on probe results until $t$, and in an auxiliary matrix $E_t$, which is conditioned on probe results obtained after $t$. Here, we obtain these matrices from experimental data and we illustrate their application to predict and retrodict the outcome of weak and strong qubit measurements.
We study the problem of estimating a time dependent magnetic field by continuous optical probing of an atomic ensemble. The magnetic field is assumed to follow a stochastic Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process and it induces Larmor precession of the atomic ground state spin, which is read out by the Faraday polarization rotation of a laser field probe. The interactions and the measurement scheme are compatible with a hybrid quantum-classical Gaussian description of the unknown magnetic field, and the atomic and field variables. This casts the joint conditional quantum dynamics and classical parameter es…
Parameter Estimation in a Continuously Monitored Non-Markovian Quantum System
Technische Universität Wien（维也纳工业大学）；Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI), Austrian Academy of Sciences（奥地利科学院量子光学与量子信息研究所）；University of Basel（巴塞尔大学）；Universidad de La Laguna（拉帕鲁纳大学）
In quantum physics, measurements give random results and yield a corresponding random back action on the state of the system subject to measurement. If a quantum system is probed continuously over time, its state evolves along a stochastic quantum trajectory. To investigate the characteristic properties of such dynamics, we perform weak continuous measurements on a superconducting qubit that is driven to undergo Rabi oscillations. From the data we observe a number of striking temporal correlations within the time dependent signals and the quantum trajectories of the qubit, and we discuss their…
The act of measuring a system has profound consequences of dynamical and thermodynamic nature. In particular, the degree of irreversibility ensuing from a non-equilibrium process is strongly affected by measurements aimed at acquiring information on the state of a system of interest: the conditional and unconditional entropy production, which quantify the degree of irreversibility of the open system's dynamics, are related to each other by clearly interpreted informational quantities. Building on a recently proposed collisional-model framework [G. T. Landi {\it et al.}, arXiv:2103.06247], we i…
We study cavity quantum electrodynamics of Bose-condensed atoms that are subjected to continuous monitoring of the light leaking out of the cavity. Due to a given detection record of each stochastic realization, individual runs spontaneously break the symmetry of the spatial profile of the atom cloud and this symmetry can be restored by considering ensemble averages over many realizations. We show that the cavity optomechanical excitations of the condensate can be engineered to target specific collective modes. This is achieved by exploiting the spatial structure and symmetries of the collecti…
Quantum Cramer-Rao Precision Limit of Noisy Continuous Sensing
Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学合肥国家实验室）；Shanghai Research Center for Quantum Sciences and CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学上海量子科学研究中心及中科院量子信息与量子物理卓越创新中心）；Institut für Theoretische Physik and IQST, Universität Ulm（乌尔姆大学理论物理研究所和IQST）；Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi（瓦拉纳西印度理工学院（贝拿勒斯）物理系）
We analyze the dynamics of entanglement in a paradigmatic noninteracting system subject to continuous monitoring of the local excitation densities. Recently, it was conjectured that the evolution of quantum correlations in such system is described by a semi-classical theory, based on entangled pairs of ballistically propagating quasiparticles and inspired by the hydrodynamic approach to unitary (integrable) quantum systems. Here, however, we show that this conjecture does not fully capture the complex behavior of quantum correlations emerging from the interplay between coherent dynamics and co…
We study a free fermion model where two sets of non-commuting non-projective measurements stabilize area-law entanglement scaling phases of distinct topological order. We show the presence of a topological phase transition that is of a different universality class than that observed in stroboscopic projective circuits. In the presence of unitary dynamics, the two topologically distinct phases are separated by a region with sub-volume scaling of the entanglement entropy. We find that this entanglement transition is well identified by a combination of the bipartite entanglement entropy and the t…
We propose a fully operational framework to study the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of a quantum system $S$ that is coupled to a detector $D$ whose state is continuously monitored, allowing to single out individual quantum trajectories of $S$. We focus on detailed fluctuation theorems and characterize the entropy production of the system. We establish fundamental differences with respect to the thermodynamic of unmonitored, unitarily evolved systems. We consider the paradigmatic example of circuit-QED, where superconducting qubits can be coupled to a continuously monitored resonator and show …
The state of a continuously monitored qubit evolves stochastically, exhibiting competition between coherent Hamiltonian dynamics and diffusive partial collapse dynamics that follow the measurement record. We couple these distinct types of dynamics together by linearly feeding the collected record for dispersive energy measurements directly back into a coherent Rabi drive amplitude. Such feedback turns the competition cooperative, and effectively stabilizes the qubit state near a target state. We derive the conditions for obtaining such dispersive state stabilization and verify the stabilizatio…
Repeated unbiased measurements cause a continual application of the weak causality principle, leading to an apparent arrow of time for continuously-monitored quantum systems.
In a quantum system that is bounded by past and future conditions, weak continuous monitoring forward-evolving and backward-evolving quantum states are usually carried out separately. Therefore, measured signals at a given time t cannot be monitored continuously. Here, we propose an enlarged-quantum-system method to combine these two processes together. Therein, we introduce an enlarged quantum state that contains both the forward- and backward-evolving quantum states. The enlarged state is governed by an enlarged master equation and propagates one-way forward in time. As a result, the measure…
The entropy production rate is a key quantity in non-equilibrium thermodynamics of both classical and quantum processes. No universal theory of entropy production is available to date, which hinders progress towards its full grasping. By using a phase space-based approach, here we take the current framework for the assessment of thermodynamic irreversibility all the way to quantum regimes by characterizing entropy production -- and its rate -- resulting from the continuous monitoring of a Gaussian system. This allows us to formulate a sharpened second law of thermodynamics that accounts for th…
Absence of measurement- and unraveling-induced entanglement transitions in continuously monitored one-dimensional free fermions
Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck（因斯布鲁克大学理论物理研究所）；Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences（奥地利科学院量子光学与量子信息研究所）
We analyze the quantum-to-classical transition (QCT) for coupled bipartite quantum systems for which the position of one of the two subsystems is continuously monitored. We obtain the surprising result that the QCT can emerge concomitantly with the presence of highly entangled states in the bipartite system. Furthermore the changing degree of entanglement is associated with the back-action of the measurement on the system and is itself an indicator of the QCT. Our analysis elucidates the role of entanglement in von Neumann's paradigm of quantum measurements comprised of a system and a monitore…
A numerical model of spontaneous decay continuously monitored by a distant detector of emitted particles is constructed. It is shown that there is no quantum Zeno effect in such quantum measurement if the interaction between emitted particle and detector is short-range and the mass of emitted particle is not zero.
The transversely confined propagating light modes of a nano-photonic optical waveguide or nanofiber can mediate effectively infinite-range forces. We show that for a linear chain of particles trapped within the waveguide's evanescent field, transverse illumination with a suitable set of laser frequencies should allow the implementation of a coupled-oscillator quantum simulator with time-dependent and widely controllable all-to-all interactions. At the example of the energy spectrum of oscillators with simulated Coulomb interactions we show that different effective coupling geometries can be em…
Exact Hilbert-space ergodicity from continuous monitoring
Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University（清华大学高等研究院）；Department of Physics & State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Fudan University（复旦大学物理系与表面物理国家重点实验室）
From the noncommutative nature of quantum mechanics, estimation of canonical observables $\hat{q}$ and $\hat{p}$ is essentially restricted in its performance by the Heisenberg uncertainty relation, $\mean{Δ\hat{q}^2}\mean{Δ\hat{p}^2}\geq \hbar^2/4$. This fundamental lower-bound may become bigger when taking the structure and quality of a specific measurement apparatus into account. In this paper, we consider a particle subjected to a linear dynamics that is continuously monitored with efficiency $η\in(0,1]$. It is then clarified that the above Heisenberg uncertainty relation is replaced by $\m…
I formulate a quantum stochastic thermodynamics for the quantum trajectories of a continuously-monitored forced harmonic oscillator coupled to a thermal reservoir. Consistent trajectory-dependent definitions are introduced for work, heat, and entropy, through engineering the thermal reservoir from a sequence of two-level systems. Within this formalism the connection between irreversibility and entropy production is analyzed and confirmed by proving a detailed fluctuation theorem for quantum trajectories. Finally, possible experimental verifications are discussed.
We address the consequences of backaction in the unidirectional coupling of two cascaded open quantum subsystems connected to the same reservoir at different spatial locations. In the spirit of [H. J. Carmichael, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 2273 (1993)], the second subsystem is a two-level atom, while the first transforms from a driven empty cavity to a perturbative QED configuration and ultimately to a driven Jaynes-Cummings (JC) oscillator through a varying light-matter coupling strength. For our purpose, we appeal at first to the properties of resonance fluorescence in the statistical description …
The evolution of entanglement entropy in quantum circuits composed of Haar-random gates and projective measurements shows versatile behavior, with connections to phase transitions and complexity theory. We reformulate the problem in terms of a classical Markov process for the dynamics of bipartition purities and establish a probabilistic cellular-automaton algorithm to compute entanglement entropy in monitored random circuits on arbitrary graphs. In one dimension, we further relate the evolution of the entropy to a simple classical spin model that naturally generalizes a two-dimensional lattic…
Quantum harmonic oscillators are central to many modern quantum technologies. We introduce a method to determine the frequency noise spectrum of oscillator modes through coupling them to a qubit with continuously driven qubit-state-dependent displacements. We reconstruct the noise spectrum using a series of different drive phase and amplitude modulation patterns in conjunction with a data-fusion routine based on convex optimization. We apply the technique to the identification of intrinsic noise in the motional frequency of a single trapped ion with sensitivity to fluctuations at the sub-Hz le…
In this paper we consider an alternative formulation of a class of stochastic wave and master equations with scalar noise that are used in quantum optics for modelling open systems and continuously monitored systems. The reformulation is obtained by applying J.M.C. Clark's pathwise reformulation technique from the theory of classical nonlinear filtering. The pathwise versions of the stochastic wave and master equations are defined for all driving paths and depend continuously on them. In the case of white noise equations, we derive analogs of Clark's robust approximations. The results in this …
