We present a method for obtaining evolution operators for linear quantum trajectories. We apply this to a number of physical examples of varying mathematical complexity, in which the quantum trajectories describe the continuous projection measurement of physical observables. Using this method we calculate the average conditional uncertainty for the measured observables, being a central quantity of interest in these measurement processes.
"Particle"-trajectories are defined as integrable $dx_μdp^μ= 0$ paths in projective space. Quantum states evolving on such trajectories, open or closed, do not delocalise in $(x, p)$ projection, the phase associated with the trajectories being related to the geometric (Berry) phase and the Classical Mechanics action. High Energy Physics properties of states evolving on "particle"-trajectories are discussed.
Quantum open systems are described in the Markovian limit by master equations in Lindblad form. I argue that common ``quantum trajectory'' techniques corresponding to continuous measurement schemes, which solve the master equation by unraveling its evolution into stochastic trajectories in Hilbert space, correspond closely to particular sets of decoherent (or consistent) histories. This is illustrated by a simple model of photon counting. An equivalence is shown for these models between standard quantum jumps and the orthogonal jumps of Diósi, which have already been shown to correspond to dec…
Quantum systems interacting with their environments can exhibit complex non-equilibrium states that are tempting to be interpreted as quantum analogs of chaotic attractors. Yet, despite many attempts, the toolbox for quantifying dissipative quantum chaos remains very limited. In particular, quantum generalizations of Lyapunov exponent, the main quantifier of classical chaos, are established only within the framework of continuous measurements. We propose an alternative generalization which is based on the unraveling of a quantum master equation into an ensemble of so-called 'quantum jump' traj…
The evolution of a mixed quantum-classical system is expressed in the mapping formalism where discrete quantum states are mapped onto oscillator states, resulting in a phase space description of the quantum degrees of freedom. By defining projection operators onto the mapping states corresponding to the physical quantum states, it is shown that the mapping quantum-classical Liouville operator commutes with the projection operator so that the dynamics is confined to the physical space. It is also shown that a trajectory-based solution of this equation can be constructed that requires the simula…
We reconsider the non-Markovian time-continuous measurement of a Heisenberg observable x and show for the first time that it can be realized by an infinite set of entangled von Neumann detectors. The concept of continuous read-out is introduced and used to re-derive the non-Markovian stochastic Schrodinger equation. We can prove that, contrary to recent doubts, the resulting non-Markovian quantum trajectories are true single system trajectories and correspond to the continuous measurement of a retarded functional of x. However, the generic non-Markovian trajectories are mixed state trajectorie…
In 1989 Kusuoka started the study of probability measures on the shift space that are defined with the help of products of matrices. In particular, he derived a sufficient condition for the ergodicity of such measures, which have since been referred to as Kusuoka measures. We observe that repeated measurements of a unitarily evolving quantum system generate a Kusuoka measure on the space of sequences of measurement outcomes. We show that if the measurement consists of scaled projections, then Kusuoka's sufficient ergodicity condition can be significantly simplified. We then prove that this con…
We derived quantum trajectories for a system interacting with the environment prepared in a continuous mode single photon state as the limit of discrete filtering model with an environment defined as series of independent qubits prepared initially in the entangled state being an analogue of a continuous mode state. The environment qubits interact with the quantum system and they are subsequently measured. The initial correlation between the bath qubits is the source of the non-Markovianity. The conditional evolutions of the quantum system for limit of the continuous in time observations togeth…
Quantum state estimation, based on the numerical integration of stochastic master equations (SMEs), provides estimates for the evolution of quantum systems subject to continuous weak measurements. The approach is similar to classical state estimation methods in that the quantum trajectories produced by solving the SME are conditioned on continuous classical measurement signals. In this paper, we explore the use of classical state estimation for a candidate quantum system, one based on an experimentally realisable system: a material object undergoing continuous feedback cooling in an optical tr…
We investigate the possibility of implementing a given projection measurement using linear optics and arbitrarily fast feedforward based on the continuous detection of photons. In particular, we systematically derive the so-called Dolinar scheme that achieves the minimum error discrimination of binary coherent states. Moreover, we show that the Dolinar-type approach can also be applied to projection measurements in the regime of photonic-qubit signals. Our results demonstrate that for implementing a projection measurement with linear optics, in principle, unit success probability may be approa…
We derive stochastic master equation for a quantum system interacting with an environment prepared in a continuous-mode $N$-photon state. To determine the conditional evolution of the quantum system depending on continuous in time measurements of the output field the model of repeated interactions and measurements is applied. The environment is defined as an infinite chain of harmonic oscillators which do not interact between themselves and they are prepared initially in an entangled state being a discrete analogue of a continuous-mode $N$-photon state. We provide not only the quantum trajecto…
A thought experiment is described and the probability of a particular type of results is predicted according to the quantum formalism. Then, the assumption is made that there exists a particle that travels from the source to one of the detectors, along a continuous trajectory. A contradiction appears: for agreeing with the quantum prediction, the particle has to land at once on two space separated detectors. Therefore, the trajectory of the particle, if it exists, cannot be continuous.
We give an explicit stochastic Hamiltonian model of discontinuous unitary evolution for quantum spontaneous jumps like in a system of atoms in quantum optics, or in a system of quantum particles that interacts singularly with "bubbles" which admit a continual counting observation. This model allows to watch a quantum trajectory in a photodetector or in a cloud chamber by spontaneous localisations of the momentums of the scattered photons or bubbles. Thus, the continuous reduction and spontaneous localization theory is obtained from a Hamiltonian singular interaction as a result of quantum filt…
We formulate computationally efficient classical stochastic measurement trajectories for a multimode quantum system under continuous observation. Specifically, we consider the nonlinear dynamics of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate contained within an optical cavity subject to continuous monitoring of the light leaking out of the cavity. The classical trajectories encode within a classical phase-space representation a continuous quantum measurement process conditioned on a given detection record. We derive a Fokker-Planck equation for the quasi-probability distribution of the combined condens…
We analyze the non-Markovian stochastic Schroedinger equation describing a particle subject to spontaneous collapses in space (in the language of collapse models), or subject to a continuous measurement of its position (in the language of continuous quantum measurement). For the first time, we give the explicit general solution for the free particle case (H = p^2/2m), and discuss the main properties. We analyze the case of an exponential correlation function for the noise, giving a quantitative description of the dynamics and of its dependence on the correlation time.
We present a stochastic projection formalism for the description of quantum dynamics in Bosonic or spin environments. The Schrödinger equation in coherent state representation with respect to the environmental degrees of freedom can be reformulated by employing the Feshbach partitioning technique for open quantum systems based on the introduction of suitable non-Hermitian projection operators. In this picture the reduced state of the system can be obtained as a stochastic average over pure state trajectories. The corresponding non-Markovian stochastic Schrödinger equations include a memory int…
The process of quantum state teleportation is described from the point of view of the properties of projections onto one-dimensional subspaces. It is introduced as a generalization of the remote preparation of a known state by use of an EPR pair. The discrete and continuous cases are treated in a unified way. The conceptual and calculational simplicity is pedagogically advantageous.
We study the role of continuous measurement in the quantum to classical transition for a system with coupled internal (spin) and external (motional) degrees of freedom. Even when the measured motional degree of freedom can be treated classically, entanglement between spin and motion causes strong measurement backaction on the quantum spin subsystem so that classical trajectories are not recovered in this mixed quantum-classical regime. The measurement can extract localized quantum trajectories that behave classically only when the internal action also becomes large relative to h-bar.
Here we analyze the relationship between quantum contextuality and decoherence in interference experiments with matter particles by means of a simple reduced quantum-trajectory model, which attempts to simulate the behavior of the projections of multi-dimensional, system-plus-environment Bohmian trajectories onto the subspace of the reduced system. This model allows us to understand the crossing of the subsystem trajectories as a combined effect of interference quenching and erasure of ``which-way'' information, which can be of utility to interpret decoherence effects in many-dimensional syste…
The linear and the nonlinear non-Markovian quantum state diffusion equation (NMQSD) are well known tools for the description of certain non-Markovian open quantum systems. In this work, we systematically investigate whether the normalized linear NMQSD or the nonlinear NMQSD solutions can be generated by means of a time-continuous measurement. By considering any conceivable measurement scheme in the framework of instruments, we derive a necessary criterion for a measurement interpretation of both equations. Concrete examples show that the normalized linear NMQSD solutions are realizable only in…
The creation of a quantum network requires the distribution of coherent information across macroscopic distances. We demonstrate the entanglement of two superconducting qubits, separated by more than a meter of coaxial cable, by designing a joint measurement that probabilistically projects onto an entangled state. By using a continuous measurement scheme, we are further able to observe single quantum trajectories of the joint two-qubit state, confirming the validity of the quantum Bayesian formalism for a cascaded system. Our results allow us to resolve the dynamics of continuous projection on…
Quantum Trajectories for a Class of Continuous Matrix Product Input States
Aberystwyth University（阿伯里斯特威斯大学）；ARC Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, Research School of Engineering, Australian National University（澳大利亚国立大学工程研究学院量子计算与通信技术中心）；School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, UNSW Australia（新南威尔士大学电气与电信学院）
The equivalence of thermodynamic ensembles is at the heart of statistical mechanics and central to our understanding of equilibrium states of matter. Recently, it has been shown that there is a formal connection between the dynamics of open quantum systems and the statistical mechanics in an extra dimension. This is established through the fact that an open system dynamics generates a Matrix Product state (MPS) which encodes the set of all possible quantum jump trajectories and permits the construction of generating functions in the spirit of thermodynamic partition functions. In the case of c…
Detecting nonequilibrium phase transitions via continuous monitoring of space-time trajectories and autoencoder-based clustering
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Tübingen（蒂宾根大学理论物理研究所）；Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques（巴黎西岱大学、法国国家科学研究中心、物质与量子现象）；Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University（考文垂大学流体与复杂系统中心）；The University of Nottingham（诺丁汉大学）
