We construct an algorithm for suppressing the transitions of a quantum mechanical system, initially prepared in a subspace P of the full Hilbert space of the system, to outside this subspace by subjecting it to a sequence of unequally spaced short-duration pulses. Each pulse multiplies the amplitude of the vectors in the subspace by -1. The number of pulses required by the algorithm to limit the leakage probability to $ε$ in time $T$ increases as $T \exp[ \sqrt{\log(T^2/ε)}]$, compared to $T^2 ε^{-1}$ in the standard quantum Zeno effect.
In this paper, we show that the quantum Zeno effect occurs for any frequent quantum measurements or operations. As a result of the Zeno effect, for non-selective measurements (or trace preserving completely positive maps), the evolution of a measurement invariant state is governed by an effective Hamiltonian defined by the measurements and the free-evolution Hamiltonian. For selective measurements, the state may change randomly with time according to measurement outcomes, while some physical quantities (operators) still evolve as the effective dynamics.
Quantum Zeno effect shows that frequent observations can slow down or even stop the unitary time evolution of an unstable quantum system. This effect can also be regarded as a physical consequence of the the statistical indistinguishability of neighboring quantum states. The accessibility of quantum Zeno dynamics under unitary time evolution can be quantitatively estimated by quantum Zeno time in terms of Fisher information. In this work, we investigate the accessibility of quantum Zeno dynamics in quantum open systems by calculating noisy Fisher information, in which a trace preserving and co…
The quantum Zeno evolution of a quantum system takes place in a proper subspace of the total Hilbert space. The physical and mathematical features of the "Zeno subspaces" depend on the measuring apparatus: when this is included in the quantum description, the Zeno effect becomes a mere consequence of the dynamics and, remarkably, can be cast in terms of an adiabatic theorem, with a dynamical superselection rule. We look at several examples and focus on quantum computation and decoherence-free subspaces.
Quantum Zeno effect is a significant tool in quantum manipulating and computing. We propose its observation in superconducting phase qubit with two experimentally feasible measurement schemes. The conventional measurement method is used to achieve the proposed pulse and continuous readout of the qubit state, which are analyzed by projection assumption and Monte Carlo wave-function simulation, respectively. Our scheme gives a direct implementation of quantum Zeno effect in a superconducting phase qubit.
The evolution of a quantum system undergoing very frequent measurements takes place in a proper subspace of the total Hilbert space (quantum Zeno effect). When the measuring apparatus is included in the quantum description, the Zeno effect becomes a pure consequence of the dynamics. We show that for continuous measurement processes the quantum Zeno evolution derives from an adiabatic theorem. The system is forced to evolve in a set of orthogonal subspaces of the total Hilbert space and a dynamical superselection rule arises. The dynamical properties of this evolution are investigated and sever…
The giant atom system is a new paradigm in quantum optics, in which the traditional dipole approximation is not available. In this paper, we construct an artificial giant atom model by coupling a superconducting circuits to a transmission line by two coupling points. In the ultrastrong coupling regime, we show that the Lamb shift of the giant atom, which is induced by the non-negligible counter-rotating atom-waveguide coupling term, will modify its dissipation process. Furthermore, we investigate quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effect where the size of the giant atom serves as a sensitive controlle…
We investigate the discrete-time quantum walk evolution under the influence of the periodic measurements in position subspace. The undisturbed survival probability of the particle at the position subspace, $P(0, t)$ is compared with the survival probability after frequent ($n$) measurements at interval $τ= t/n$, $P(0, τ)^n$. We show that $P(0, τ)^n > P(0, t)$ leading to the quantum Zeno effect in the position subspace when a parameter $θ$ in the quantum coin operations and frequency of measurements is greater than the critical value, $θ> θ_{c}$ and $n>n_{c}$. This Zeno effect in the subspace p…
Quantum superdense coding enables a sender to encode a two-bit classical message in one qubit using the preshared entanglement. In this paper, we develop a superdense coding protocol using a dual quantum Zeno (DQZ) gate to take the full advantage of quantum superdense coding from the complete Bell-state analysis. We verify that the DQZ gate allows remote parties to achieve the distinguishability of orthonormal Bell states in a semi-counterfactual manner and the DQZ superdense coding achieves high throughput efficiency as a function of cycle numbers for the Bell-state analyzer.
Studying out-of-equilibrium physics in quantum systems under quantum quench is of vast experimental and theoretical interests. Using periodic quantum quenches, we present an experimentally accessible scheme to simulate the quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects in an open quantum system of a single superconducting qubit interacting with an array of transmission line resonators. The scheme is based on the following two observations: Firstly, compared with conventional systems, the short-time non-exponential decay in our superconducting circuit system is readily observed; and secondly, a quench-off …
We introduce an efficient iterative method to prepare a target state in Hilbert spaces with high dimensionality using a combination of unitary evolution, measurements, and quantum Zeno dynamics. The latter confines the evolution within Zeno subspaces of decreasing size. This gives an exponential speed up relative to the case of states evolving in the full Hilbert space between projective measurements. We demonstrate our approach on the control problem of rapidly transferring a superfluid into the Mott insulator in the Bose-Hubbard model. We discuss the general applicability of the method by pr…
While quantum probes surely feel gravity, no source of gravity has been prepared in a delocalized quantum state yet. Two basic questions need to be addressed: how to delocalize a mass sufficiently large to generate detectable gravity; and, once that state has been prepared, how to fight localization by decoherence. We propose to fight decoherence by freezing the source in the desired state through the Zeno effect. Successful implementation can be verified by scattering a probe in the effective potential generated by the source. Besides putting forward the idea, we provide an estimation of the …
In this work, we study the decay behavior of a two-level system under the competing influence of a dissipative environment and repetitive measurements. The sign of the second derivative of the environmental spectral density function with respect to the system transition frequency is found to be a sufficient condition to distinguish between the quantum Zeno (negative) and the anti-Zeno (positive) effects raised by the measurements. We check our criterion for practical measurement intervals, which are larger than the conceptual Zeno time, in various environments. In particular, with the Lorentzi…
By repeatedly measuring a quantum system, the evolution of the system can be slowed down (the quantum Zeno effect) or sped up (quantum anti-Zeno effect). We study these effects for a single two-level system coupled to a collection of harmonic oscillators. Previously, such systems have been studied in both the weak and the strong system-environment coupling regimes. In this paper, we apply a polaron transformation in a manner that allows us to study the quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects for a large variety of system-environment parameters. Using this approach, we reproduce previous results for…
Protecting Quantum States via the Super-Zeno Effect and Anticoherence
Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México（墨西哥国立自治大学核科学研究所）；School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Hainan University（海南大学物理与电子工程学院）；Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics, HSE University（高等经济大学季霍诺夫莫斯科电子与数学研究所）
Detailed schemes are investigated for experimental verification of Quantum Zeno effect with a superconducting qubit. A superconducting qubit is affected by a dephasing noise whose spectrum is 1/f, and so the decay process of a superconducting qubit shows a naturally non-exponential behavior due to an infinite correlation time of 1/f noise. Since projective measurements can easily influence the decay dynamics having such non-exponential feature, a superconducting qubit is a promising system to observe Quantum Zeno effect. We have studied how a sequence of projective measurements can change the …
We experimentally demonstrate the freezing of evolution of quantum states in one- and two-dimensional subspaces of two qubits, on an NMR quantum information processor. State evolution was frozen and leakage of the state from its subspace to an orthogonal subspace was successfully prevented using super-Zeno sequences, comprising of a set of inverting radio frequency (rf) pulses punctuated by pre-selected time intervals. We demonstrate the efficacy of the scheme by preserving different types of states, including separable and maximally entangled states in one- and two-dimensional subspaces of tw…
In the context of quantum state engineering we analyze the effect of observation on nonlinear optical $n$-photon Fock state generation. We show that it is possible to truncate the vacuum component from an arbitrary photon number superposition without modifying its remaining parts. In the course of the full dynamical analysis of the effect of observation, it is also found that the Zeno and the anti-Zeno effects repeat periodically. We discuss the close relationship between vacuum state truncation and so-called "interaction-free" measurement.
It is well known that repeated projective measurements can either speed up (the Zeno effect) or slow down (the anti-Zeno effect) quantum evolution. Until now, however, studies of these effects for a two-level system interacting strongly with its environment have focused on repeatedly preparing the excited state of the two-level system via the projective measurements. In this paper, we consider the repeated preparation of an arbitrary state of a two-level system that is interacting strongly with an environment of harmonic oscillators. To handle the strong interaction, we perform a polaron trans…
Quantum Zeno and Anti-Zeno Responses: Universal Spectral Criterion for Measurement-Induced Decay
State Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Physics and Chip Technologies, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院半导体研究所半导体物理与芯片技术国家重点实验室）；Center of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物质科学与光电技术研究中心）
We propose a method to generate large cluster states without using conditional (e.g., CNOT, C-phase) gates. Indeed, an arbitrarily large cluster state can be generated and expanded almost deterministically by single-qubit rotations and a special non-deterministic collective detection. If the rotation of each step is sufficiently small, the quantum Zeno effect will guarantee that the state is projected into the intended subspace after each measurement, and an almost-perfect cluster state can be produced. We also propose a possible implementation of this approach using superconducting flux qubit…
Super Mario is imprisoned by a demon in a finite potential well. He can escape from the well with the help of a flight of magic stairs floating in the space. However, the hateful demon may occasionally check his status. At that time, he has to make a judgement of either jumping to the inside ground immediately in order to avoid the discovery of his escape intention, or speeding up his escape process. Therefore, if the demon checks him too frequently such that there is no probability for him to reach the top of the barrier, he will be always inside the well, then a classical Zeno effect occurs.…
Wave--particle transition and quantum Zeno effect in which-way experiments with a superconducting quantum processor
RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing (RQC)（理化学研究所量子计算中心）；Department of Physics, University of Michigan（密歇根大学物理系）；Department of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo（东京大学工学研究科应用物理系）
Projective measurements are an essential element of quantum mechanics. In most cases, they cause an irreversible change of the quantum system on which they act. However, measurements can also be used to stabilize quantum states from decay processes, which is known as the quantum Zeno effect (QZE). Here, we demonstrate this effect for the case of a superposition state of a nuclear spin qubit, using an ancilla to perform the measurement. As a result, the quantum state of the qubit is protected against dephasing without relying on an ensemble nature of NMR experiments. We also propose a scheme to…
We unify the quantum Zeno effect (QZE) and the "bang-bang" (BB) decoupling method for suppressing decoherence in open quantum systems: in both cases strong coupling to an external system or apparatus induces a dynamical superselection rule that partitions the open system's Hilbert space into quantum Zeno subspaces. Our unification makes use of von Neumann's ergodic theorem and avoids making any of the symmetry assumptions usually made in discussions of BB. Thus we are able to generalize BB to arbitrary fast and strong pulse sequences, requiring no symmetry, and to show the existence of two alt…
We analyze the quantum Zeno dynamics that takes place when a field stored in a cavity undergoes frequent interactions with atoms. We show that repeated measurements or unitary operations performed on the atoms probing the field state confine the evolution to tailored subspaces of the total Hilbert space. This confinement leads to non-trivial field evolutions and to the generation of interesting non-classical states, including mesoscopic field state superpositions. We elucidate the main features of the quantum Zeno mechanism in the context of a state-of-the-art cavity quantum electrodynamics ex…
The quantum Zeno effect (QZE) is the phenomenon where the unitary evolution of a quantum state is suppressed e.g. due to frequent measurements. Here, we investigate the use of the QZE in a class of communication complexity problems (CCPs). Quantum entanglement is known to solve certain CCPs beyond classical constraints. However, recent developments have yielded CCPs where super-classical results can be obtained using only communication of a single d-level quantum state (qudit) as a resource. In the class of CCPs considered here, we show quantum reduction of complexity in three ways: using i) e…
Traditional approach on quantum Zeno effect (QZE) and quantum anti-Zeno effect (QAZE) in open quantum systems (implicitly) assumes the bath (environment) state returning to its original state after each instantaneous projective measurement on the system and thus ignores the cross-correlations of the bath operators between different Zeno intervals. However, this assumption is not generally true, especially for a bath with a considerably non-negligible memory effect and for a system repeatedly projected into an initial general superposition state. We find that in stark contrast to the result of …
We propose to use the continuous version of the quantum Zeno effect to eliminate leakage to higher energy states in superconducting quantum computing architectures based on Josephson phase and flux qubits. We are particularly interested in the application of this approach to the single-step Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state protocol described in [A. Galiautdinov and J. M. Martinis, Phys. Rev. A 78, 010305(R) (2008)]. While being conceptually appealing, the protocol was found to be plagued with a number of spectral crowding and leakage problems. Here we argue that by coupling the qubits t…
The Zeno and anti-Zeno effects are features of measurement-driven quantum evolution where frequent measurement inhibits or accelerates the decay of a quantum state. Either type of evolution can emerge depending on the system-environment interaction and measurement method. In this experiment, we use a superconducting qubit to map out both types of Zeno effect in the presence of structured noise baths and variable measurement rates. We observe both the suppression and acceleration of qubit decay as repeated measurements are used to modulate the qubit spectrum causing the qubit to sample differen…
In this work we study an ultrastrong coupled qubit-cavity system subjected to slow repeated measurements. We demonstrate that even under a few imperfect measurements it is possible to detect transitions of the qubit from its free ground state to the excited state. The excitation probability grows exponentially fast in analogy with the quantum anti-Zeno effect. The dynamics and physics described in this paper is accessible to current superconducting circuit technology.
We study the Zeno and anti-Zeno effects in a superconducting qubit interacting strongly and ultrastrongly with a microwave resonator. Using a model of a frequently measured two-level system interacting with a quantized mode, we show different behaviors and total control of the Zeno times depending on whether the rotating-wave approximation can be applied in the Jaynes-Cummings model, or not. We exemplify showing the strong dependence of our results with the properties of the initial field states and suggest applications for quantum tomography.
In a quantum world, a watched arrow never moves. This is the Quantum Zeno Effect (QZE). Repeatedly asking a quantum system "are you still in your initial state?" blocks its coherent evolution through measurement back-action. Quantum Zeno Dynamics (QZD) leaves more freedom to the system. Instead of pinning it to a single state, it sets a border in its evolution space. Repeatedly asking the system "did you cross the border?" makes it impenetrable. Since the border can be designed at will by choosing the measured observable, QZD allows one to tailor the system's evolution space. Recent proposals,…
We observe the quantum Zeno effect -- where the act of measurement slows the rate of quantum state transitions -- in a superconducting qubit using linear circuit quantum electrodynamics readout and a near-quantum-limited following amplifier. Under simultaneous strong measurement and qubit drive, the qubit undergoes a series of quantum jumps between states. These jumps are visible in the experimental measurement record and are analyzed using maximum likelihood estimation to determine qubit transition rates. The observed rates agree with both analytical predictions and numerical simulations. The…
We consider inter-atomic forces due to resonant dipole-dipole interactions within a dimer of highly excited Rydberg atoms, embedded in an ultra-cold gas. These forces rely on a coherent superposition of two-atom electronic states, which is destroyed by continuous monitoring of the dimer state through a detection scheme utilizing controllable interactions with the background gas atoms. We show that this intrinsic decoherence of the molecular energy surface can gradually deteriorate a repulsive dimer state, causing a mixing of attractive and repulsive character. For sufficiently strong decoheren…
Although interference is a classical-wave phenomenon, the superposition principle, which underlies interference of individual particles, is at the heart of quantum physics. An interaction-free measurements (IFM) harnesses the wave-particle duality of single photons to sense the presence of an object via the modification of the interference pattern, which can be accomplished even if the photon and the object haven't interacted with each other. By using the quantum Zeno effect, the efficiency of an IFM can be made arbitrarily close to unity. Here we report an on-chip realization of the IFM based…
It is generally impossible to probe a quantum system without disturbing it. However, it is possible to exploit the back-action of quantum measurements and strong couplings to tailor and protect the coherent evolution of a quantum system. This is a profound and counterintuitive phenomenon known as quantum Zeno dynamics (QZD). Here we demonstrate QZD with a rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate in a five-level Hilbert space. We harness measurements and strong couplings to dynamically disconnect different groups of quantum states and constrain the atoms to coherently evolve inside a two-level subregi…
We present a theoretical study of a superconducting charge qubit dispersively coupled to a transmission line resonator. Starting from a master equation description of this coupled system and using a polaron transformation, we obtain an exact effective master equation for the qubit. We then use quantum trajectory theory to investigate the measurement of the qubit by continuous homodyne measurement of the resonator out-field. Using the same porlaron transformation, a stochastic master equation for the conditional state of the qubit is obtained. From this result, various definitions of the measur…
The dynamical properties of a quantum system can be profoundly influenced by its environment. Usually, the environment provokes decoherence and its action on the system can often be schematized by adding a noise term in the Hamiltonian. However, other scenarios are possible: we show that by increasing the strength of the noise, the Hilbert space of the system gradually splits into invariant subspaces, among which transitions become increasingly difficult. The phenomenon is equivalent to the formation of the quantum Zeno subspaces. We explore the possibility that noise can {\em prevent}, rather…
We examine the fixed space of positive trace-preserving super-operators. We describe a specific structure that this space must have and what the projection onto it must look like. We show how these results, in turn, lead to an alternative proof of the complete characterization of the fixed space of completely positive trace-preserving super-operators.
We study the state decay of two qubits interacted with a common harmonic oscillator reservoir. There are both decoherence error and the error caused by the amplitude change of the superradiant state. We show that frequent $π$-phase pulses can eliminate both typpes of errors therefore protect a two-qubit odd-parity state more effectively than the frequent measurement method. This shows that the the methods using dynamical decoupling and the quantum Zeno effects actually can give rather {\em different} results when the operation frequency is finite.
We analyze the nonlinear dynamics of atomic dark states in Lambda configuration that interact with light at exact resonance. We found a generalization of shape-preserving pulses [R. Grobe, F. T. Hioe, and J. H. Eberly, Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 3183 (1994)] and show that the condition for adiabaticity of the atomic dynamics is never violated, as long as spontaneous emission is negligible.
In contrast to the fully projective limit of strong quantum measurement, where the evolution is locked to a small subspace (quantum Zeno dynamics), or even frozen completely (quantum Zeno effect), the weak non-projective measurement can effectively compete with standard unitary dynamics leading to nontrivial effects. Here we consider global weak measurement addressing collective variables, thus preserving quantum superpositions due to the lack of which path information. While for certainty we focus on ultracold atoms, the idea can be generalized to other multimode quantum systems, including va…
For the first time, we have observed the annihilation of multiple eigenstates of the parent potentials and redistribution of the energy in the deformed potentials in the system with spontaneously breaking of parity-time symmetry while preserving the SUSY of the system. We have observed that the deformation of the potentials is sensitive to initial conditions. This first experimental observation enables the localization of eigenspectra in lateral space (so-called time) and the localization of eigenstates in longitudinal space in the deformed potentials by experimentally applying the SUSY higher…
Similarly to quantum states, quantum operations can also be transformed by means of quantum superchannels, also known as process matrices. Quantum superchannels with multiple slots are deterministic transformations whichtake independent quantum operations as inputs. While they are enforced to respect the laws of quantum mechanics, the use of input operations may lack a definite causal order, and characterizations of general superchannels in terms of quantum objects with a physical implementation have been missing. In this paper, we provide a mathematical characterization for pure superchannels…
Alternatively to the full reconstruction of an unknown quantum process, the so-called selective and efficient quantum process tomography (SEQPT) allows estimating, individually and up to the required accuracy, a given element of the matrix that describes such an operation with a polynomial amount of resources. The implementation of this protocol has been carried out with success to characterize the evolution of a quantum system that is well described by a trace preserving quantum map. Here, we deal with a more general type of quantum process that does not preserve the trace of the input quantu…
