Abstract In this paper we approach the theory of continuous measurements and the associated unconditional and conditional (stochastic) master equations from the perspective of quantum information and quantum computing. We do so by showing how the continuous-time evolution of these master equations arises from discretizing in time the interaction between a system and a probe field and by formulating quantum-circuit diagrams for the discretized evolution. We then reformulate this interaction by replacing the probe field with a bath of qubits, one for each discretized time segment, reproducing all of the standard quantum-optical master equations. This provides an economical formulation of the theory, highlighting its fundamental underlying assumptions.
Abstract In this paper we approach the theory of continuous measurements and the associated unconditional and conditional (stochastic) master equations from the perspective of quantum information and quantum computing. We do so by showing how the continuous-time evolution of these master equations arises from discretizing in time the interaction between a system and a probe field and by formulating quantum-circuit diagrams for the discretized evolution. We then reformulate this interaction by replacing the probe field with a bath of qubits, one for each discretized time segment, reproducing all of the standard quantum-optical master equations. This provides an economical formulation of the theory, highlighting its fundamental underlying assumptions.
This dissertation concerns itself with the virtues and vices of weak measurements. Weak measurements are all around us, but this does not mean that one should manufacture weakness on all occasions. We critically evaluate two proposals that claim weak measurements provide a novel means of performing quantum state tomography, allegedly increasing tomographic efficacy and yielding foundational insights into the nature of quantum mechanics. We find weak measurements are not an essential ingredient for most of their advertised features. In contrast to this negative finding, we highlight an optimal tomographic scheme for which weak continuous measurements are the best known implementation, taking the opportunity to present this result in the language of quantum noise. Weak measurements are also used to describe continuous measurements and the associated unconditional and conditional master equations. Though this description has been presented before, we provide a new perspective by using tools and terminology from the discipline of quantum information and quantum computing. We do so by showing how the continuous-time evolution of these master equations arises from discretizing in time the interaction between a system and a probe field and by formulating quantum-circuit diagrams for the discretized evolution. We then reformulate this interaction by replacing the probe field with a bath of qubits, one for each discretized time segment, reproducing all of the standard quantum-optical master equations. This provides an economical formulation of the white-noise theory of continuous measurements, highlighting its fundamental underlying assumptions and limitations. White-noise theory is incapable of describing photon-counting measurements in the presence of thermal and squeezed noise. We accommodate such scenarios by considering an environment that includes traveling wave packets that are squeezed, deriving a hierarchy of equations similar to those used to describe traveling wave packets with fixed photon number. Squeezing introduces qualitatively different effects, however, complicating numerical solution of these hierarchies. We provide preliminary numerical analysis of the formalism and showcase its utility by calculating the resonance fluorescence of a two-level atom in squeezed vacuum with squeezing bandwidth narrower than the atomic linewidth, a regime previous techniques cannot explore.
Quantum Markov models have been successfully used to accurately model various physical quantum systems in fields such as quantum optics, optomechanics and superconducting circuits and they provide the basis for (measurement-based) quantum feedback control. However, the quantum Markov assumption is a strong one and it is not expected to hold for general quantum systems of interest. The projection operator approach is one approach that has been developed to model non-Markovian quantum systems by considering its embedding in a larger Markovian quantum system, but mainly in the context of quantum master equations for the dynamics of the unmonitored reduced quantum state of a quantum system. This approach was recently adapted for continuously measured non-Markovian quantum systems, which enables open-loop control but did not yet consider the presence of feedback of the stochastic measurement record, deriving non-Markovian SDEs for the evolution of the projected state of the Markovian embedding. This paper generalizes these stochastic equations to the setting of stochastic feedback based on the continuous-measurement record and shows that the equations take the same form but that previously deterministic terms become stochastic ones which depend on the measurement record, as would be intuitively expected. The stochastic equations are obtained for a generalized class of measurements that includes continuous (possibly adaptive) homodyne and photon counting measurements.
Abstract We develop a system of non-linear stochastic evolution equations that describes the continuous measurements of quantum systems with mixed initial state. We address quantum systems with unbounded Hamiltonians and unbounded interaction operators. Using arguments of the theory of quantum measurements we derive a system of stochastic interacting wave functions (SIWFs for short) that models the continuous monitoring of quantum systems. We prove the existence and uniqueness of the solution to this system under conditions general enough for the applications. We obtain that the mixed state generated by the SIWF at any time does not depend on the initial state, and satisfies the diffusive stochastic quantum master equation, which is also known as Belavkin equation. We present two physical examples. In one, the SIWF becomes a system of non-linear stochastic partial differential equations. In the other, we deal with a model of a circuit quantum electrodynamics.
We introduce jump-time unraveling as a distinct description of open quantum systems. As our starting point, we consider quantum jump trajectories, which emerge, physically, from continuous quantum measurements, or, formally, from the unraveling of Markovian quantum master equations. If the stochastically evolving quantum trajectories are ensemble-averaged at specific times, the resulting quantum states are solutions to the associated quantum master equation. We demonstrate that quantum trajectories can also be ensemble-averaged at specific jump counts. The resulting jump-time-averaged quantum states are then solutions to a discrete, deterministic evolution equation, with time replaced by the jump count. This jump-time evolution represents a trace-preserving quantum dynamical map if and only if the associated open system does not exhibit dark states. In the presence of dark states, on the other hand, jump-time-averaged states may decay into the dark states and the jump-time evolution may eventually terminate. Jump-time-averaged quantum states and the associated jump-time evolution are operationally accessible in continuous measurement schemes, when quantum jumps are detected and used to trigger the readout measurements. We illustrate the jump-time evolution with the examples of a two-level system undergoing relaxation or dephasing, a damped harmonic oscillator, and a free particle exposed to collisional decoherence.
Quantum Markov models are employed ubiqui-tously in quantum physics and in quantum information theory due to their relative simplicity and analytical tractability. In particular, these models are known to give accurate approxi-mations for a wide range of quantum optical and meso scopic systems. However, in general, the validity of the Markov approximation entails assumptions regarding properties of the system of interest and its environment, which may not be satisfied or accurate in arbitrary physical systems. Therefore, developing useful modelling tools for general non-Markovian quantum systems for which the Markov approximation is inappropriate or deficient is an undertaking of significant importance. This work considers non-Markovian principal quantum systems that can be embedded in a larger Markovian quantum system with one or more compound baths consisting of an auxiliary quantum system and a quantum white noise field, and derives a set of coupled stochastic and quantum master equations for embedded non-Markovian quantum systems. The case of a purely Hamiltonian coupling between the principal and auxiliary systems as a closed system without coupling to white noises is included as a special case. The results are expected to be of interest for (open-loop and feedback) control of continuous-time non-Markovian systems and studying reduced models for numerical simulation of such systems. They may also shed more light on the general structure of continuous-time non-Markovian quantum systems.
We derive stochastic master equations for a quantum system interacting with a Bose field prepared in a superposition of continuous-mode coherent states. To determine a conditional evolution of the quantum system, we use a collision model with an environment given as an infinite chain of not interacting between themselves qubits prepared initially in an entangled state being a discrete analogue of a superposition of coherent states of the Bose field. The elements of the environment chain interact with the quantum system in turn one by one, and they are subsequently measured. We determine a conditional evolution of the quantum system for continuous in time observations of the output field as a limit of discrete recurrence equations. We consider the stochastic master equations for a counting as well as for a diffusive stochastic process.