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arXiv:1006.1584

Effective disentanglement of measured system and measurement apparatus

S. Camalet

Published Jun 8, 2010• 0 citations
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Abstract

We consider a multi-level system coupled to a bosonic measurement apparatus. We derive exact expressions for the time-dependent expectation values of a large class of physically relevant observables that depend on degrees of freedom of both sytems. We find that, for this class, though the two systems become entangled as a result of their interaction, they appear classically correlated for long enough times. The unique corresponding separable state is determined explicitly. To better understand the physical parameters that control the time scale of this effective disentanglement process, we study a one-dimensional measurement apparatus.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1006.1584

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We consider a multi-level system coupled to a bosonic measurement apparatus. We derive exact expressions for the time-dependent expectation values of a large class of physically relevant observables that depend on degrees of freedom of both sytems. We find that, for this class, though the two systems become entangled as a result of their interaction, they appear classically correlated for long enough times. The unique corresponding separable state is determined explicitly. To better understand the physical parameters that control the time scale of this effective disentanglement process, we study a one-dimensional measurement apparatus.
We consider a multilevel system coupled to a bosonic measurement apparatus. We derive exact expressions for the time-dependent expectation values of a large class of physically relevant observables that depend on degrees of freedom of both systems. We find that, for this class, though the two systems become entangled as a result of their interaction, they appear classically correlated for long enough times. The unique corresponding time-dependent separable state is determined explicitly. To better understand the physical parameters that control the time scale of this effective disentanglement process, we study a one-dimensional measurement apparatus.
We consider a class of entangled states of a quantum system (S) and a second system (A) where pure states of the former are correlated with mixed states of the latter, and work out the entanglement measure with reference to the nearest separable state. Such "pure-mixed" entanglement is expected when the system S interacts with a macroscopic measuring apparatus in a quantum measurement, where the quantum correlation is destroyed in the process of environment-induced decoherence whereafter only the classical correlation between S and A remains, the latter being large compared to the former. We present numerical evidence that the entangled S–A state drifts towards the nearest separable state through decoherence, with an additional tendency of equimixing among relevant groups of apparatus states.
A model of quantum measurement is proposed, which aims to describe statistical mechanical aspects of this phenomenon, starting from a purely Hamiltonian formulation. The macroscopic measurement apparatus is modeled as an ideal Bose gas, the order parameter of which, that is, the amplitude of the condensate, is the pointer variable. It is shown that properties of irreversibility and ergodicity breaking, which are inherent in the model apparatus, ensure the appearance of definite results of the measurement, and provide a dynamical realization of wave-function reduction or collapse. The measurement process takes place in two steps: First, the reduction of the state of the tested system occurs over a time of order $\ensuremath{\Elzxh}{/(TN}^{1/4}),$ where T is the temperature of the apparatus, and N is the number of its degrees of freedom. This decoherence process is governed by the apparatus-system interaction. During the second step classical correlations are established between the apparatus and the tested system over the much longer time scale of equilibration of the apparatus. The influence of the parameters of the model on nonideality of the measurement is discussed. Schr\"odinger kittens, EPR setups, and information transfer are analyzed.
For a solvable pure-decoherence model, we confirm by an explicit model calculation that the decay of entanglement of two two-state systems (two qubits) is approximately governed by the product of the suppression factors describing decoherence of the subsystems, provided that they are subject to uncorrelated sources of quantum noise. This demonstrates an important physical property that separated open quantum systems can evolve quantum mechanically on time scales larger than the times for which they remain entangled.
We investigate the purity dynamics of a quantum system coupled to a continuous-variable pointer through a von Neumann-type interaction Hamiltonian of the form H^int=g H^⊗p^\hat H_{\mathrm{int}}=g\,\hat H\otimes\hat pH^int​=gH^⊗p^​. For an initially Gaussian pointer state, the interaction generates energy-dependent conditional translations whose mutual overlaps are determined explicitly by the populated spectral separations of the system Hamiltonian. After tracing out the pointer degrees of freedom, we obtain the reduced density operator and derive an exact analytical expression for the time-dependent purity. Using this expression, we establish two-sided purity bounds governed by the minimum and maximum nonzero energy gaps on the populated spectral support. These bounds provide a state-dependent spectral characterization of the loss of purity and become exact for two-level systems. We further show that the short-time decrease of purity is controlled by the Hamiltonian variance of the initial state, with P′′(0)=−(g2/σ2)Var⁡ψS(H^)\mathcal P''(0)=-(g^2/σ^2) \operatorname{Var}_{ψ_S}(\hat H)P′′(0)=−(g2/σ2)VarψS​​(H^). In addition, an explicit sufficient timescale is derived for the purity to approach its asymptotic value within a prescribed tolerance, revealing the scaling tε∝σ/(∣g∣Δmin⁡)t_{\varepsilon}\proptoσ/(|g|Δ_{\min})tε​∝σ/(∣g∣Δmin​). Finally, the general results are illustrated for an equally weighted NNN-level system with an equally spaced spectrum, for which the asymptotic purity is 1/N1/N1/N. The analysis clarifies the distinct roles of spectral separation, energy variance, coupling strength, and pointer width in Hamiltonian-conditioned purity loss.
We show how the correlations of a quantum system with other quantum systems may cause one of its observables to behave in a classical manner. In particular, "reduction of the wave packet," postulated by von Neumann to explain definiteness of an outcome of an individual observation, can be explained when a realistic model of an apparatus is adopted. Instead of an isolated quantum apparatus with a number of states equal to the number of possible distinct outcomes of the measurement, discussed by von Neumann, we consider an apparatus interacting with other physical systems, described here summarily as "environment." The interaction of the quantum apparatus with the environment results in correlations. Correlations impose effective superselection rules which prevent apparatus from appearing in a superposition of states corresponding to different eigenvalues of the privileged pointer observable. It is the propagation of the correlations with the pointer basis states which is ultimately responsible for the choice of the pointer observable. It can be thought of as a process of amplification in which the state of many distinct physical systems becomes correlated with the pointer basis state. Whether these environment systems are regarded as a part of the apparatus setup, or as a part of its environment is irrelevant. What is crucial is the redundancy of the record concerning the pointer observable which is imprinted into the correlations. Eigenspaces of the pointer observable provide a natural basis for the pointer of the quantum apparatus and determine the to-be-measured observable of the quantum system. Decay of those elements of the apparatus-system density matrix, which are off-diagonal in the pointer observable, is caused by the natural evolution of the combined system-apparatus-environment object. For a hypothetical finite environment with NNN distinct eigenvalues of the apparatus-environment interaction Hamiltonian, off-diagonal terms will decay to become of the order of ${N}^{\ensuremath{-}\frac{1}{2}}$, and will recur only on a Poincar\'e time scale. No recurrences will be observed in realistic circumstances. As the correlations spread through the environment on a time scale typically much shorter than the recurrence time scale calculated for the environment already correlated with the pointer observable, the measurement becomes effectively irreversible. Relevance of this model of the measurement process for the understanding of the second law of thermodynamics and its relation to Bohr's "irreversible act of amplification" is briefly discussed. The emergence of the pointer observable can be interpreted as a clue about the resolution of the measurement problem in case of no environment. It points towards the possibility that properties of quantum systems have no absolute meaning. Rather, they must be always characterized with respect to other physical systems.