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arXiv:1001.3032

Quantum Behavior of Measurement Apparatus

Taoufik Amri

Published Jan 18, 2010• 4 citations
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Abstract

We precise for the first time the quantum behavior of a measurement apparatus in the framework of the usual interpretation of quantum physics. We show how such a behavior can also be studied by the retrodiction of pre-measurement states corresponding to its responses. We translate in terms of these states some interesting properties of the behavior of an apparatus, such as the projectivity, the fidelity, the non-Gaussian character, or the non-classicality of measurements performed by this one. We also propose an experimental procedure allowing the tomography of these pre-measurement states for optical detectors. We illustrate the relevance of these new notions for measurements, by evaluating them for two detectors widely used in quantum optics: the avalanche photodiode and the homodyne detection.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1001.3032

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We precise for the first time the quantum behavior of a measurement apparatus in the framework of the usual interpretation of quantum physics. We show how such a behavior can also be studied by the retrodiction of pre-measurement states corresponding to its responses. We translate in terms of these states some interesting properties of the behavior of an apparatus, such as the projectivity, the fidelity, the non-Gaussian character, or the non-classicality of measurements performed by this one. We also propose an experimental procedure allowing the tomography of these pre-measurement states for optical detectors. We illustrate the relevance of these new notions for measurements, by evaluating them for two detectors widely used in quantum optics: the avalanche photodiode and the homodyne detection.
Using the retrodictive approach of quantum physics, we show that the state retrodicted from the response of a measurement apparatus is a convenient tool to fully characterize its quantum properties. We translate in terms of this state some interesting aspects of the quantum behavior of a detector, such as the nonclassicality or the non-gaussian character of its measurements. We also introduce estimators--the projectivity, the ideality, the fidelity, or the detectivity of measurements performed by the apparatus--which directly follow from the retrodictive approach. Beyond their fundamental significance for describing general quantum measurements, these properties are crucial in several protocols, in particular, in the conditional preparation of nonclassical states of light or in measurement-driven quantum information processing.
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Recent efforts have applied quantum tomography techniques to the calibration and characterization of complex quantum detectors using minimal assumptions. In this work, we provide detail and insight concerning the formalism, the experimental and theoretical challenges and the scope of these tomographical tools. Our focus is on the detection of photons with avalanche photodiodes and photon-number resolving detectors and our approach is to fully characterize the quantum operators describing these detectors with a minimal set of well-specified assumptions. The formalism is completely general and can be applied to a wide range of detectors.
Starting from first principles inspired by quantum tomography rather than Born's rule, this paper gives a new, elementary, and self-contained deductive approach to quantum mechanics. A suggestive notion for what constitutes a quantum detector and for the behavior of its responses leads to a logically impeccable definition of measurement. Applications to measurement schemes for optical states, position measurements and particle tracks demonstrate that this definition is applicable without any idealization to complex realistic experiments. The various forms of quantum tomography for quantum states, quantum detectors, quantum processes, and quantum instruments are discussed. The traditional dynamical and spectral properties of quantum mechanics are derived from a continuum limit of quantum processes. In particular, the Schr\odinger equation the state vector of a pure, nonmixing quantum system and the Lindblad equation for the density operator of a mixing quantum system are shown to be consequences of the new approach. A slight idealization of the measurement process leads to the notion of quantum fields, whose smeared quantum expectations emerge as reproducible properties of regions of space accessible to measurements.
The quantization of light is the basis for quantum optics and has led to the observation of a multitude of genuine quantum effects which cannot be explained by classical physics. Yet, there exist different views when we refer to the distinct quantum character of light as opposed to classical fields. A major impact on how we describe photonic states is caused by the detection method we use for the quantum state characterization. In the theoretical modelling measuring light always means the recording of photon statistics of some kind, though the way we interpret the results is quite different and depends mainly on the intensity of actual detected light. If we use conventional photodiodes and monitor bright light, we attribute the detected statistics to quadrature measurements in a phase space representation, or—in other words—we identify the quantum state by studying its uncertainties of its field amplitude and phase properties which correspond to conjugate quantum observables. For multi-photon states with very low intensity we have to employ avalanche photodiodes (APDs) to be able to see any signal, but photon number resolution seems difficult in this regime. Recent developments allow one to ascertain information about the photon statistics from APD measurements opening up new routes for characterizing photonic states. In this article we review the different methods for modern quantum state metrology where we include theoretical aspects as well as the description of the state-of-the-art technology for measuring photon statistics.
When can one interpret the outcomes of a quantum measurement as revealing a pre-existing objective property? Using the recently developed formalism of quantum measurement retrodiction, we provide a quantitative treatment of this question: for any POVM and faithful prior state, we construct a positive semidefinite bilinear form that quantifies the non-objectivity of every real-valued outcome feature through the disagreement between its predictive value and its retrodictive counterpart. We show that this form decomposes exactly into the sum of two positive semidefinite bilinear forms: an unsharpness form and an asymmetry form given by Wigner--Yanase skew information. The total form vanishes precisely on those outcome features that can be interpreted, relative to the prior, as revealing pre-existing properties; in particular, it vanishes identically if and only if the POVM is sharp and commutes with the prior. Finally, under maps that preserve the prior and are covariant under its modular group, asymmetry cannot increase, and any loss of asymmetry is offset by at least as much unsharpness, so that total non-objectivity cannot decrease.