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arXiv:1402.5025 · Physical Review A

Time-energy costs of quantum measurements

Chi‐Hang Fred Fung, H. F. Chau

Published May 8, 2014• 3 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Time and energy of quantum processes are a tradeoff against each other. We propose to ascribe to any given quantum process a time-energy cost to quantify how much computation it performs. Here, we analyze the time-energy costs for general quantum measurements, along a similar line as our previous work for quantum channels, and prove exact and lower bound formulas for the costs. We use these formulas to evaluate the efficiencies of actual measurement implementations. We find that one implementation for a Bell measurement is optimal in time energy. We also analyze the time-energy cost for unambiguous state discrimination and find evidence that only a finite time-energy cost is needed to distinguish any number of states.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.89.052306

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Time and energy of quantum processes are a tradeoff against each other. We propose to ascribe to any given quantum process a time-energy cost to quantify how much computation it performs. Here, we analyze the time-energy costs for general quantum measurements, along a similar line as our previous work for quantum channels, and prove exact and lower bound formulas for the costs. We use these formulas to evaluate the efficiencies of actual measurement implementations. We find that one implementation for a Bell measurement is optimal in time energy. We also analyze the time-energy cost for unambiguous state discrimination and find evidence that only a finite time-energy cost is needed to distinguish any number of states.
The speed of any quantum process is limited by quantum mechanics via time-energy uncertainty relations and they imply that time and energy are tradeoff with each other. As such, we propose to measure the time-energy as a single unit for quantum channels. We consider a time-energy measure for quantum channels and compute lower and upper bounds of it using the channel Kraus operators. For a special class of channels (which includes the depolarizing channel), we obtain the exact value of the timeenergy measure. Our result can be used to compare the time-energy resources of similar quantum processes. In particular, we show that erasing quantum information requires √ (n+ 1)/n times more time-energy resource than erasing classical information, where n is the system dimension. This work is published in [1].
Quantum mechanics sets limits on how fast quantum processes can run given some system energy through time-energy uncertainty relations, and they imply that time and energy are tradeoffs against each other. Thus, we propose to measure the time energy as a single unit for quantum channels. We consider a time-energy measure for quantum channels and compute lower and upper bounds of it using the channel Kraus operators. For a special class of channels (which includes the depolarizing channel), we can obtain the exact value of the time-energy measure. One consequence of our result is that erasing quantum information requires (n+1)/n\sqrt{(n+1)/n}(n+1)/n​ times more time-energy resource than erasing classical information, where nnn is the system dimension.
Quantifying the energetic cost of implementing quantum operations is essential for assessing the efficiency and scalability of quantum sensing and information-processing technologies. Here, we introduce a framework for analysing the interplay between complexity and energy cost of quantum processes. In particular, we apply our framework to a sequential quantum phase estimation protocol, where a phase of physical significance is encoded in a quantum channel. The channel is applied to a probe state repeatedly until the probe is measured and the outcome leads to an estimate on the phase. We establish a trade-off relation between the total energy cost of the protocol and the number of times the channel is applied (complexity), while reaching a desired estimation precision. A sweet spot is located where the two quantities are co-optimised. The principles of our analysis can be adapted to benchmark the energetic requirements in other quantum protocols and devices.
Quantum measurements are an essential ingredient in numerous protocols and quantum technologies.As a characteristic trait, quantum measurements are typically employed a vast number of times to allow for higher accuracy, better control or just increased performance of quantum devices.In this thesis, we pursue a resource-theoretic approach to quantum measurements, aiming at the quantification of their energetic cost.While there exists a plethora of literature on this topic already, we develop a general framework that allows us to unify several of these previous results and to improve them systematically.We highlight an issue common to most of these previous works, where a notion of quantum measurement is employed which is not detailed enough to be applicable to several realistic and important applications for quantum measurement.More concretely, previous work typically involves a state transformation concept, similar to thermodynamic considerations, where only a specific initial and final state of the measured system are specified to characterise the process.For real applications however, quantum measurement devices are typically required to perform the measurement for all possible initial states of the measured system.In this thesis we analyse this requirement and obtain as a consequence much stronger energy constraints on quantum measurements than previously known.For particular forms of measurement, namely dephasing channels, projective quantum instruments, and projection valued measures, we even determine the exact energy costs in contrast to the common lower bound statements in previous literature.Remarkably, the exact cost of projective quantum instruments constitutes the strongest energy constraint on quantum measurement known so far.We demonstrate the implications of these results in two important applications, where quantum measurements play a significant role, namely quantum Zeno stabilisation and quantum error correction.The exact energetic requirements we compute for these two protocols show that any restriction on the amount of available energy immediately places fundamental constraints on the performance of these protocols.