We study the quantum Zeno effect in the case of indirect measurement, where the detector does not interact directly with the unstable system. Expanding on the model of Koshino and Shimizu [Phys. Rev. Lett., 92, 030401, (2004)] we consider a realistic Hamiltonian for the detector with a finite bandwidth. We also take explicitly into account the position, the dimensions and the uncertainty in the measurement of the detector. Our results show that the quantum Zeno effect is not expected to occur, except for the unphysical case where the detector and the unstable system overlap.
In the paper by M. Hotta and M. Morikawa [Phys. Rev. A 69, 052114 (2004)] the non-existence of the quantum Zeno effect caused by indirect measurements has been claimed. It is shown here that the pertinent proof is incorrect, and the claim unfounded.
We study the quantum Zeno effect and the anti-Zeno effect in the case of `indirect' measurements, where a measuring apparatus does not act directly on an unstable system, for a realistic model with finite errors in the measurement. A general and simple formula for the decay rate of the unstable system under measurement is derived. In the case of a Lorentzian form factor, we calculate the full time evolutions of the decay rate, the response of the measuring apparatus, and the probability of errors in the measurement. It is shown that not only the response time but also the detection efficiency …
We critically study the possibility of quantum Zeno effect for indirect measurements. If the detector is prepared to detect the emitted signal from the core system, and the detector does not reflect the signal back to the core system, then we can prove the decay probability of the system is not changed by the continuous measurement of the signal and the quantum Zeno effect never takes place. This argument also applies to the quantum Zeno effect for accelerated two-level systems, unstable particle decay, etc.
Recently, Wallentowitz and Toschek [Phys. Rev. A 69, 046101 (2005)] criticized the assertion made by Hotta and Morikawa [Phys. Rev. A 69, 052114 (2004)] that distant indirect measurements do not cause the quantum Zeno effect, and claimed that their proof is faulty and that their claim is unfounded. Here, it is shown that the argument given by Wallentowitz and Toschek includes a mathematical flaw and that their criticism is unfounded.
In this paper we study the quantum Zeno effect using the irreversible model of the measurement. The detector is modeled as a harmonic oscillator interacting with the environment. The oscillator is subjected to the force, proportional to the energy of the measured system. We use the Lindblad-type master equation to model the interaction with the environment. The influence of the detector's temperature on the quantum Zeno effect is obtained. It is shown that the quantum Zeno effect becomes stronger (the jump probability decreases) when the detector's temperature increases.
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.
Frequent Measurements on an unstable particle located at observable initial state freeze the particle on this state, known as quantum Zeno effect [1-14]. Measurements on an observable subspace further open the prelude of quantum Zeno dynamics [15-17]. These phenomena affect the results of quantum measurement that has been widely used in quantum information and quantum computation [18-21]. However, this common argument is insufficient when the initial state is coupled with a continuum reservoir. In such an irreversible system, intrinsic decay property destroys the frozen behavior. Although it h…
We describe the influence of continuous measurement in a decaying system and the role of the distance from the detector to the initial location of the system. The detector is modeled first by a step absorbing potential. For a close and strong detector, the decay rate of the system is reduced; weaker detectors do not modify the exponential decay rate but suppress the long-time deviations above a coupling threshold. Nevertheless, these perturbing effects of measurement disappear by increasing the distance between the initial state and the detector, as well as by improving the efficiency of the d…
The quantum Zeno paradox is fully resolved for purely indirect and incomplete measurements performed by the detectors outside the system. If the outside detectors are prepared to observe propagating signals of a decay event of an excited state in the core region, the survival probability of the state is not changed at all by the outside measurements, as long as the wavefunction of the signals does not have reflectional-wave contributions going back to the core by the outside detectors. The proof is independendent of the decay law of the survival probabilities. Just watching frequently from out…
We propose an experiment with two coupled microwave cavities and a "tunneling" photon observed by the passage of Rydberg atoms. We model the coupled cavities as in Ref. \cite{art1} and include dissipative effects as well as limited detection efficiency. We also consider realistic finite atom-field interaction times and provide for a simple analytical expression for the photon "tunneling" probability including all these effects. We show that for sufficiently small dissipation constants the effect can be observed with current experimental facilities.
Modeling an arbitrarily accelerating qubit as an open quantum system, we derive an exact solution for the pure-dephasing model ($σ_z$ coupling) under arbitrary qubit space-time trajectories, as well as general expressions for the survival probabilities of finite-length qubits interacting with a massless scalar field under $σ_x$ coupling (an Unruh-DeWitt detector) to second order. We follow the regularization scheme presented in a previous paper by S. Schlicht, to allow a finite length quantum detector to couple to the massless scalar field. We compute the decay rate of the qubit in different c…
The quantum Zeno effect -- suppression of decay by frequent measurements -- was believed to occur only when the response of the detector is so quick that the initial tiny deviation from the exponential decay law is detectable. However, we show that it can occur even for exactly exponentially decaying systems, for which this condition is never satisfied, by considering a realistic case where the detector has a finite energy band of detection. The conventional theories correspond to the limit of an infinite bandwidth. This implies that the Zeno effect occurs more widely than expected so far.
The linear optics approach to quantum computing has several potential advantages but the logic operations are probabilistic. Here we review the use of the quantum Zeno effect to suppress the intrinsic failure events in these kinds of devices, which would produce deterministic logic operations without the need for ancilla photons or high-efficiency detectors. The potential advantages of implementing Zeno gates using micro-cavities and electromagnetically-induced transparency are discussed.
The fact that repeated projective measurements can slow down (the Zeno effect) or speed up (the anti-Zeno effect) quantum evolution is well-known. However, to date, studies of these effects focus on quantum systems that are weakly interacting with their environment. In this paper, we investigate what happens to a quantum system under the action of repeated measurements if the quantum system is strongly interacting with its environment. We consider as the quantum system a single two-level system coupled strongly to a collection of harmonic oscillators. A so-called polaron transformation is then…
We show that the quantum Zeno effect can be used to suppress the failure events that would otherwise occur in a linear optics approach to quantum computing. From a practical viewpoint, that would allow the implementation of deterministic logic gates without the need for ancilla photons or high-efficiency detectors. We also show that the photons can behave as if they were fermions instead of bosons in the presence of a strong Zeno effect, which leads to a new paradigm for quantum computation.
Quantum mechanics predicts that our physical reality is influenced by events that can potentially happen but factually do not occur. Interaction-free measurements (IFMs) exploit this counterintuitive influence to detect the presence of an object without requiring any interaction with it. Here we propose and realize an IFM concept based on an unstable many-particle system. In our experiments, we employ an ultracold gas in an unstable spin configuration which can undergo a rapid decay. The object - realized by a laser beam - prevents this decay due to the indirect quantum Zeno effect and thus, i…
It was shown that different mechanisms of perturbation of spontaneous decay constant: inelastic interaction of emitted particles with particle detector, decay onto an unstable level, Rabi transition from the final state of decay (electromagnetic field domination) and some others are really the special kinds of one general effect - perturbation of decay constant by dissipation of the final state of decay. Such phenomena are considered to be Zeno-like effects and general formula for perturbed decay constant is deduced.
We perform stochastic simulations of the quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects for two level system and for the decaying one. Instead of simple projection postulate approach, a more realistic model of a detector interacting with the environment is used. The influence of the environment is taken into account using the quantum trajectory method. The simulation of the measurement for a single system exhibits the probabilistic behavior showing the collapse of the wave-packet. When a large ensemble is analysed using the quantum trajectory method, the results are the same as those produced using the de…
Diagonalization of the effective Hamiltonian describing an open quantum system is the usual method of tracking its exceptional points. Although, such a method is successful for tracking EPs in Markovian systems, it may be problematic in non-Markovian systems where a closed expression of the effective Hamiltonian describing the open system may not exist. In this work we provide an alternative method of tracking EPs in open quantum systems, using an experimentally measurable quantity, namely the effective decay rate of a qubit. The quantum system under consideration consists of two non-identical…
When the interaction of a quantum system with a detector is changing from weak to strong coupling limits, the system experiences a transition from the regime with quantum mechanical coherent oscillations to the regime with a frozen dynamics. In addition to this quantum Zeno transition, we show that the full counting statistics of detector signal events experiences a topological phase transition at the boundary between two phases at intermediate coupling of a quantum system to the detector. We demonstrate that this transition belongs to the class of topological phase transitions that can be cla…
We analyze a simple and feasible practical scheme displaying Zeno, anti-Zeno, and inverse-Zeno effects in the observation of wave-packet spreading caused by free evolution. The scheme is valid both in spatial diffraction of classical optical waves and in time diffraction of a quantum wave packet. In the optical realization, diffraction spreading is observed by placing slits between a light source and a light-power detector. We show that the occurrence of Zeno or anti-Zeno effects depends just on the frequency of observations between the source and detector. These effects are seen to be related…
We study the measurement process by treating classical detectors entirely quantum mechanically. As a generic model we use a point-contact detector coupled to an electron in a quantum dot and tunneling into the continuum. Transition to the classical description and the mechanism of decoherence are investigated. We concentrate on the influence of the measurement on the electron decay rate to the continuum. We demonstrate that the Zeno (or the anti-Zeno) effect requires a nonuniform density of states in the continuum. In this case we show that the anti-Zeno effect relates only to the average deca…
We consider a qubit interacting with its environment and continuously monitored by a detector represented by a point contact. Bloch-type equations describing the entire system of the qubit, the environment and the detector are derived. Using these equations we evaluate the detector current and its noise spectrum in terms of the decoherence and relaxation rates of the qubit. Simple expressions are obtained that show how these quantities can be accurately measured. We demonstrate that due to interaction with the environment, the measurement can never localize a qubit even for infinite decoherenc…
The driven evolution of the spin of an individual atomic ion on the ground-state hyperfine resonance is impeded by the observation of the ion in one of the pertaining eigenstates. Detection of resonantly scattered light identifies the ion in its upper ``bright'' state. The lower ``dark'' ion state is free of relaxation and correlated with the detector by a null signal. Null events represent the straightforward demonstration of the quantum Zeno paradox. Also, high probability of survival was demonstrated when the ion, driven by a fractionated $π$ pulse, was probed {\em and monitored} during the…
We study the dynamics of a charge qubit, consisting of a single electron in a double well potential, coupled to a point-contact (PC) electrometer using the quantum trajectories formalism. In contrast with previous work, our analysis is valid for arbitrary source-drain bias across the PC, but is restricted to the sub-Zeno limit. We find that the dynamics is strongly affected by inelastic tunnelling processes in the PC. These processes reduce the efficiency of the PC as a qubit readout device, and induce relaxation even when the source-drain bias is zero. We show that the sub-Zeno dynamics are d…
We analyze the detection of itinerant photons using a quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement. We show that the backaction due to the continuous measurement imposes a limit on the detector efficiency in such a scheme. We illustrate this using a setup where signal photons have to enter a cavity in order to be detected dispersively. In this approach, the measurement signal is the phase shift imparted to an intense beam passing through a second cavity mode. The restrictions on the fidelity are a consequence of the Quantum Zeno effect, and we discuss both analytical results and quantum trajectory…
We have observed the three-photon correlation in nonclassical light sources by using an indirect measurement scheme based on the dead time effect of photon-counting detectors. We first developed a general theory which enables us to extract the three-photon correlation from the two-photon correlation of an arbitrary light source measured with detectors with finite dead times. We then confirmed the validity of our measurement scheme in experiments done with the cavity-QED microlaser operating with a large intra-cavity mean photon number exhibiting both sub- and super-poissoniaq photon statistics…
We study the dynamics of a charge qubit, consisting of a single electron in a double well potential coupled to a point-contact (PC) electrometer, using the quantum trajectories formalism. Contrary to previous predictions, we show formally that, in the sub-Zeno limit, coherent oscillations in the detector output are suppressed, and the dynamics is dominated by inelastic processes in the PC. Furthermore, these reduce the detector efficiency and induce relaxation even when the source-drain bias is zero. This is of practical significance since it means the detector will act as a source of decohere…
It was predicted that frequently repeated measurements on an unstable quantum state may alter the decay rate of the state. This is called the quantum Zeno effect (QZE) or the anti-Zeno effect (AZE), depending on whether the decay is suppressed or enhanced. In conventional theories of the QZE and AZE, effects of measurements are simply described by the projection postulate, assuming that each measurement is an instantaneous and ideal one. However, real measurements are not instantaneous and ideal. For the QZE and AZE by such general measurements, interesting and surprising features have recentl…
Performing measurements for high-weight operators has been a practical problem in quantum computation, especially for quantum codes in the stabilizer formalism. The conventional procedure of measuring a high-weight operator requires multiple pairwise unitary operations, which can be slow and prone to errors. We provide an alternative method to passively detect the value of a high-weight operator using only two-local interactions and single-qubit continuous measurements. This approach involves joint interactions between the system and continuously-monitored ancillary qubits. The measurement out…
An indirect quantum state measurement process is under investigation. Common evolution of detector's microscopic part (pointer) and measured system (target) is considered to be nonunitary due to the interaction between pointer and environment. System of differential equations for superoperators, which map initial target state to it's conditional final state is obtained. Developed formalism is applied to the problem of cavity quantum mode photodetection to investigate basic information characteristics of this measurement process.
In this report, we study the reduced conditional dynamics of a quantum system in the case of indirect quantum measurement. The detectors microscopic part (pointer) interacts with the measured system (target) and the environment, which results in a nonunitary interaction between target and pointer. The quantum state evolution conditioned by the measurement result is under investigation. Particularly, we are interested in explicit analytical expressions for the conditional evolution superoperators and basic information characteristics of this measurement process, which is applied to the cavity m…
It was known that a novel quantum communication protocol surpassing the shot noise limit can be proposed by an atomic indirect measurement based on the Jaynes-Cummings model. Moreover, the quantum communication with the atomic indirect measurement can nearly achieve the Helstrom bound as well as the accessible information when message is transmitted by an ideal coherent state. Here, we show that the atomic indirect measurement is robust against the phase-diffusion noise. By considering the error probability of discriminating received signal, we show that the atomic indirect measurement can als…
We perform a nonperturbative analysis of a charge qubit in a double quantum dot structure coupled to its detector. We show that strong detector-dot interaction tends to slow down and halt coherent oscillations. The transitions to a classical and a low-temperature quantum overdamping (Zeno) regime are studied. In the latter, the physics of the dissipative phase transition competes with the effective shot noise.
We study dynamics of the measurement process in quantum dot systems, where a particular state out of coherent superposition is observed. The ballistic point-contact placed near one of the dots is taken as a noninvasive detector. We demonstrate that the measurement process is fully described by the Bloch-type equations applied to the whole system. These equations clearly reproduce the collapse of the density-matrix into the statistical mixture in the course of the measurement process. The corresponding dephasing width is uniquely defined. We show that the continuous observation of one of the st…
We consider the continuous measurement of a double quantum dot by a weakly coupled detector (tunnel point contact nearby). While the conventional approach describes the gradual system decoherence due to the measurement, we study the situation when the detector output is explicitly recorded that leads to the opposite effect: gradual purification of the double-dot density matrix. Nonlinear Langevin equation is derived for the random evolution of the density matrix which is reflected and caused by the stochastic detector output. Gradual collapse, gradual purification, and quantum Zeno effect are …
We consider a continuous measurement of a two-level system (double-dot) by weakly coupled detector (tunnel point contact nearby). While usual treatment leads to the gradual system decoherence due to the measurement, we show that the knowledge of the measurement result can restore the pure wavefunction at any time (this can be experimentally verified). The formalism allows to write a simple Langevin equation for the random evolution of the system density matrix which is reflected and caused by the stochastic detector output. Gradual wavefunction ``collapse'' and quantum Zeno effect are naturall…
We discuss definitions of the quantum efficiency for binary-outcome qubit detectors with imperfect fidelity, focusing on the subclass of quantum non-demolition detectors. Quantum efficiency is analyzed for several models of detectors, including indirect projective measurement, linear detector in binary-outcome regime, detector of the superconducting phase qubit, and detector based on tunneling into continuum.
A continuous projective measurement of a quantum system often leads to a suppression of the dynamics, known as the Zeno effect. Alternatively, generalized nonprojective, so-called "weak" measurements can be carried out. Such a measurement is parameterized by its strength parameter that can interpolate continuously between the ideal strong measurement with no dynamics-the strict Zeno effect, and a weak measurement characterized by almost free dynamics but blurry observations. Here we analyze the stochastic properties of this uncertainty component in the resulting observation trajectory. The obs…
We formulate a model of a quantum particle continuously monitored by detectors measuring simultaneously its position and momentum. We implement the postulate of wavefunction collapse by assuming that upon detection the particle is found in one of the meters' states chosen as a discrete subset of coherent states. The dynamics, as observed by the meters, is thus a random sequence of jumps between coherent states. We generate such trajectories using the Monte Carlo Wavefunction method. For sparsely distributed detectors, we use methods from renewal theory of stochastic processes to obtain some se…
We consider a continuous measurement of a two-level system (double-dot) by weakly coupled detector (tunnel point contact nearby). While usual treatment leads to the gradual system decoherence due to the measurement, we show that the knowledge of the measurement result can restore the pure wavefunction at any time (this can be experimentally verified). The formalism allows to write a simple Langevin equation for the random evolution of the system density matrix which is reflected and caused by the stochastic detector output. Gradual wavefunction ``collapse'' and quantum Zeno effect are naturall…
We present general quantum mechanical expressions for higher order moments, cumulants, and spectra of continuously measured quantum systems with applications in spin noise spectroscopy, quantum transport, and measurement theory in general. Starting from the so-called stochastic master equation of continuous measurement theory, we find that the leading orders of the fluctuating detector output $z(t)$ with respect to the measurement strength $β$ are a white shot noise background, a constant measurement offset, and the leading order quantum noise of the measured operator $A$. Starting from quantu…
We study the influence of a detector on the decay law of a quantum state whose "undisturbed" survival probability is purely exponential. In particular, we consider a detector with a finite energy band of detection, i.e. it interacts only with decay products having an energy within a certain range of values. In one case, we assume that the detector performs many repeated measurements at short time intervals in all of which a collapse of the wave function occurs (bang-bang or pulsed-type measurements). In the second case, we assume a continuous measurement which preserves unitarity. We confirm t…
We investigated the electron tunneling out of a quantum dot in the presence of a continuous monitoring by a detector. It is shown that the Schrödinger equation for the whole system can be reduced to new Bloch-type rate equations describing the time-development of the detector and the measured system at once. Using these equations we find that the continuous measurement of the unstable system does not affect its exponential decay, $\exp (-Γt)$, contrary to expectations based on the Quantum Zeno effect . However, the width of the energy distribution of the tunneling electron is no more $Γ$, but …
We consider evolution of a double quantum dot (DQD) two-electron spin qubit which is continuously weakly measured with a linear charge detector (quantum point contact). Since the interaction between the spins of two electrons depends on their charge state, the charge measurement affects the state of two spins, and induces non-trivial spin dynamics. We consider the regimes of strong and weak coupling to the detector, and investigate the measurement-induced spin dynamics both analytically and numerically. We observe emergence of the negative-result evolution and the system stabilization due to a…
The problem of the detection statistics of a quantum walker has received increasing interest, connected as it is to the problem of quantum search. We investigate the effect of employing a moving detector, using a projective measurement approach with fixed sampling time $τ$, with the detector moving right before every detection attempt. For a tight-binding quantum walk on the line, the moving detector allows one to target a specific range of group velocities of the walker, qualitatively modifying the behavior of the quantum first-detection probabilities. We map the problem to that of a stationa…
It had been a long standing problem that there is no consistent definition of photon position operator nor photon number density in the context of quantum theory. In this paper we derive the photon detection operator, which defines location of photon absorption, by applying the theory of indirect measurement to quantum electrodynamics. It is shown that the photon detection probability depends on electric properties of a photon-absorbing atom, in particular, on both electric and magnetic dipole moments of the atom. An experiment is proposed, in which the complementarity of wave-particle nature …
The phenomenon that a quantum particle propagating in a detector, such as a Wilson cloud chamber, leaves a track close to a classical trajectory is analyzed. We introduce an idealized quantum-mechanical model of a charged particle that is periodically illuminated by pulses of laser light resulting in repeated indirect measurements of the approximate position of the particle. For this model we present a mathematically rigorous analysis of the appearance of particle tracks, assuming that the Hamiltonian of the particle is quadratic in the position- and momentum operators, as for a freely moving …
The problem of the time of arrival of a quantum system in a specified state is considered in the framework of the repeated measurement protocol and in particular the limit of continuous measurements is discussed. It is shown that for a particular choice of system-detector coupling, the Zeno effect is avoided and the system can be described effectively by a non-Hermitian effective Hamiltonian. As a specific example we consider the evolution of a quantum particle on a one-dimensional lattice that is subjected to position measurements at a specific site. By solving the corresponding non-Hermitian…
We discuss a simple and analytically solvable measurement model which describes the famous Quantum Zeno Effect (QZE) and Inverse Zeno Effect (IZE), that correspond to the slow down and to the increase of the decay rate caused by measurements (or, more in general, by the interaction of an unstable state with the detector and the environment). Within this model one can understand quite general features of the QZE and IZE: by considering an unstable quantum state, such as an unstable particle, whose decay width as function of energy is $Γ(ω)=g^{2}ω^α,$ then -- under quite general assumptions -- t…
