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arXiv:1508.01185 · Physical Review Letters

Correlations of the Time Dependent Signal and the State of a Continuously Monitored Quantum System

Neda Foroozani, Mahdi Naghiloo, D. Tan, Klaus Mølmer, K. W. Murch

Published Mar 17, 2016• 32 citations
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Abstract

In quantum physics, measurements give random results and yield a corresponding random backaction on the state of the system subject to measurement. If a quantum system is probed continuously over time, its state evolves along a stochastic quantum trajectory. To investigate the characteristic properties of such dynamics, we perform weak continuous measurements on a superconducting qubit that is driven to undergo Rabi oscillations. From the data we observe a number of striking temporal correlations within the time dependent signals and the quantum trajectories of the qubit, and we discuss their explanation in terms of quantum measurement and photodetection theory.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.116.110401

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In quantum physics, measurements give random results and yield a corresponding random backaction on the state of the system subject to measurement. If a quantum system is probed continuously over time, its state evolves along a stochastic quantum trajectory. To investigate the characteristic properties of such dynamics, we perform weak continuous measurements on a superconducting qubit that is driven to undergo Rabi oscillations. From the data we observe a number of striking temporal correlations within the time dependent signals and the quantum trajectories of the qubit, and we discuss their explanation in terms of quantum measurement and photodetection theory.
Abstract The dynamics of a quantum system, undergoing unitary evolution and continuous monitoring, can be described in term of quantum trajectories. Although the averaged state fully characterizes expectation values, the entire ensemble of stochastic trajectories goes beyond simple linear observables, keeping a more attentive description of the entire dynamics. Here we go beyond the Lindblad dynamics and study the probability distribution of the expectation value of a given observable over the possible quantum trajectories. The measurements are applied to the entire system, having the effect of projecting the system into a product state. We develop an analytical tool to evaluate this probability distribution at any time t. We illustrate our approach by analyzing two paradigmatic examples: a single qubit subjected to magnetization measurements, and a free hopping particle subjected to position measurements.
We consider the temporal correlations of the quantum state of a qubit subject to simultaneous continuous measurement of two noncommuting qubit observables. Such qubit state correlators are defined for an ensemble of qubit trajectories, which has the same fixed initial state and can also be optionally constrained by a fixed final state. We develop a stochastic path integral description for the continuous quantum measurement and use it to calculate the considered correlators. Exact analytic results are possible in the case of ideal measurements of equal strength and are also shown to agree with solutions obtained using the Fokker-Planck equation. For a more general case with decoherence effects and inefficiency, we use a diagrammatic approach to find the correlators perturbatively in the quantum efficiency. We also calculate the state correlators for the quantum trajectories which are extracted from readout signals measured in a transmon qubit experiment, by means of the quantum Bayesian state update. We find an excellent agreement between the correlators based on the experimental data and those obtained from our analytical and numerical results.
In quantum mechanics, the measurement outcome of an observable in a quantum system is intrinsically random, yielding a probability distribution. The state of the quantum system can be described by a density matrix (t), which depends on the information accumulated until time t, and represents our knowledge about the system. The density matrix (t) gives probabilities for the outcomes of measurements at time t. Further probing of the quantum system allows us to refine our prediction in hindsight. In this thesis, we experimentally examine a quantum smoothing theory in a superconducting qubit by introducing an auxiliary matrix E(t) which is conditioned on information obtained from time t to a final time T. With the complete information before and after time t, the pair of matrices [(t), E(t)] can be used to make smoothed predictions for the measurement outcome at time t. We apply the quantum smoothing theory in the case of continuous weak measurement unveiling the retrodicted quantum trajectories and weak values. In the case of strong projective measurement, while the density matrix (t) with only diagonal elements in a given basis |n> may be treated as a classical mixture, we demonstrate a failure of this classical mixture description in determining the smoothed probabilities for the measurement outcome at time t with both diagonal (t) and diagonal E(t). We study the correlations between quantum states and weak measurement signals and examine aspects of the time symmetry of continuous quantum measurement. We also extend our study of quantum smoothing theory to the case of resonance fluorescence of a superconducting qubit with homodyne measurement and observe some interesting effects such as the modification of the excited state probabilities, weak values, and evolution of the predicted and retrodicted trajectories.
Quantum measurements are described as instantaneous projections in textbooks. They can be stretched out in time using weak measurements, whereby one can observe the evolution of a quantum state as it heads towards one of the eigenstates of the measured operator. This evolution can be understood as a continuous nonlinear stochastic process, generating an ensemble of quantum trajectories, consisting of noisy fluctuations on top of geodesics that attract the quantum state towards the measured operator eigenstates. The rate of evolution is specific to each system-apparatus pair, and the Born rule constraint requires the magnitudes of the noise and the attraction to be precisely related. We experimentally observe the entire quantum trajectory distribution for weak measurements of a superconducting qubit in circuit QED architecture, quantify it, and demonstrate that it agrees very well with the predictions of a single-parameter white-noise stochastic process. This characterisation of quantum trajectories is a powerful clue to unraveling the dynamics of quantum measurement, beyond the conventional axiomatic quantum theory.
The evolution of a quantum state undergoing radiative decay depends on how its emission is detected. If the emission is detected in the form of energy quanta, the evolution is characterized by a quantum jump to a lower energy state. In contrast, detection of the wave nature of the emitted radiation leads to different dynamics. Here, we investigate the diffusive dynamics of a superconducting artificial atom under continuous homodyne detection of its spontaneous emission. Using quantum state tomography, we characterize the correlation between the detected homodyne signal and the emitter's state, and map out the conditional back-action of homodyne measurement. By tracking the diffusive quantum trajectories of the state as it decays, we characterize selective stochastic excitation induced by the choice of measurement basis. Our results demonstrate dramatic differences from the quantum jump evolution associated with photodetection and highlight how continuous field detection can be harnessed to control quantum evolution.