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arXiv:2103.06111 · PRX Quantum

Stochastic Path-Integral Analysis of the Continuously Monitored Quantum Harmonic Oscillator

Tathagata Karmakar, Philippe Lewalle, Andrew N. Jordan

Published Feb 18, 2022• 16 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider the evolution of a quantum simple harmonic oscillator in a general Gaussian state under simultaneous time-continuous weak position and momentum measurements.We deduce the stochastic evolution equations for position and momentum expectation values and the covariance-matrix elements from the characteristic function of the system.By generalizing the Chantasri-Dressel-Jordan (CDJ) formalism (Chantasri et al., 2013(Chantasri et al., , 2015) ) to this continuous-variable system, we construct its stochastic Hamiltonian and action.Action extremization gives us the equations for the most likely readout paths and quantum trajectories.For steady states of the covariance-matrix elements, the analytical solutions for these most likely paths are obtained.Using the CDJ formalism, we calculate final-state probability densities exactly starting from any initial state.We also demonstrate the agreement between the optimal-path solutions and the averages of simulated clustered stochastic trajectories.Our results provide insights into the time dependence of the mechanical energy of the system during the measurement process, motivating their importance for quantum measurement-engine or refrigerator experiments.Although quantum mechanics fundamentally limits our ability to extract information via simultaneous measurements of noncommuting observables, insights into the dynamics of the system during such a process can lead to a deeper understanding of the physics of measurement.

DOI
10.1103/prxquantum.3.010327

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We consider the evolution of a quantum simple harmonic oscillator in a general Gaussian state under simultaneous time-continuous weak position and momentum measurements.We deduce the stochastic evolution equations for position and momentum expectation values and the covariance-matrix elements from the characteristic function of the system.By generalizing the Chantasri-Dressel-Jordan (CDJ) formalism (Chantasri et al., 2013(Chantasri et al., , 2015) ) to this continuous-variable system, we construct its stochastic Hamiltonian and action.Action extremization gives us the equations for the most likely readout paths and quantum trajectories.For steady states of the covariance-matrix elements, the analytical solutions for these most likely paths are obtained.Using the CDJ formalism, we calculate final-state probability densities exactly starting from any initial state.We also demonstrate the agreement between the optimal-path solutions and the averages of simulated clustered stochastic trajectories.Our results provide insights into the time dependence of the mechanical energy of the system during the measurement process, motivating their importance for quantum measurement-engine or refrigerator experiments.Although quantum mechanics fundamentally limits our ability to extract information via simultaneous measurements of noncommuting observables, insights into the dynamics of the system during such a process can lead to a deeper understanding of the physics of measurement.
We generalize and extend the stochastic path-integral formalism and action principle for continuous quantum measurement introduced in Chantasri, Dressel, and Jordan [Phys. Rev. A 88, 042110 (2013)], where the optimal dynamics, such as the most likely paths, is obtained by extremizing the action of the stochastic path integral. In this work, we apply exact functional methods as well as develop a perturbative approach to investigate the statistical behavior of continuous quantum measurement. Examples are given for the qubit case. For qubit measurement with zero-qubit Hamiltonian, we find analytic solutions for average trajectories and their variances while conditioning on fixed initial and final states. For qubit measurement with unitary evolution, we use the perturbation method to compute expectation values, variances, and multi-time-correlation functions of qubit trajectories in the short-time regime. Moreover, we consider continuous qubit measurement with feedback control, using the action principle to investigate the global dynamics of its most likely paths, and finding that in an ideal case, qubit state stabilization at any desired pure state is possible with linear feedback. We also illustrate the power of the functional method by computing correlation functions for the qubit trajectories with a feedback loop to stabilize the qubit Rabi frequency.
We study the control problem of regulating the purity of a quantum harmonic oscillator in a Gaussian state via weak measurements. Specifically, we assume time-invariant Hamiltonian dynamics and that control is exerted via the back-action induced from monitoring the oscillator’s position and momentum observables; the manipulation of the detector measurement strengths regulates the purity of the target Gaussian quantum state. After briefly drawing connections between Gaussian quantum dynamics and stochastic control, we focus on the effect of inefficient detectors and derive closed-form expressions for the transient and steady-state dynamics of the state covariance. We highlight the degradation of attainable purity that is due to inefficient detectors, as compared to that dictated by the Robertson-Schrödinger uncertainty relation. Our results suggest that quantum correlations can enhance the purity at steady-state. The quantum harmonic oscillator represents a basic system where analytic formulae may provide insights into the role of inefficient measurements in quantum control; the gained insights are pertinent to measurement-based quantum engines and cooling experiments.
We present a stochastic path integral formalism for continuous quantum measurement that enables the analysis of rare events using action methods. By doubling the quantum state space to a canonical phase space, we can write the joint probability density function of measurement outcomes and quantum state trajectories as a phase space path integral. Extremizing this action produces the most likely paths with boundary conditions defined by preselected and postselected states as solutions to a set of ordinary differential equations. As an application, we analyze continuous qubit measurement in detail and examine the structure of a quantum jump in the Zeno measurement regime.
Beyond the weak-coupling limit, open quantum systems equilibrate to a highly entangled thermal state. For continuous-variable systems, this state can be written explicitly as an imaginary-time phase-space path integral, in which the positions are directly entangled with the bath, and the momenta are correlated with the positions through a phase term. Here, we ask to what extent this state can be reached by propagating stochastic classical trajectories in path-integral phase space. Surprisingly, we find that the trajectories equilibrate to the exact quantum equilibrium state, recovering the purely imaginary momentum-position correlation in the phase term. The trajectories are generated using a recently derived Matsubara generalized Langevin equation, which produces the imaginary correlations by evolving the stochastic variables into the complex plane. This makes the dynamics numerically unstable, but we are nonetheless able to demonstrate the equilibration of a quartic oscillator coupled to a white-noise bath. These unexpected findings could lead to new approximate methodologies for simulating continuous-variable open quantum systems.
We predict that continuously monitored quantum dynamics can be chaotic. The optimal paths between past and future boundary conditions can diverge exponentially in time when there is time-dependent evolution and continuous weak monitoring. Optimal paths are defined by extremizing the global probability density to move between two boundary conditions, and are then expressed as solutions to a Hamiltonian dynamical system. We investigate the onset of chaos in pure-state qubit systems with optimal paths generated by a periodic Hamiltonian. Specifically, chaotic quantum dynamics are demonstrated in a scheme where two noncommuting observables of a qubit are continuously monitored, and one measurement strength is periodically modulated. The optimal quantum paths in this example bear similarities to the trajectories of the kicked rotor, or standard map, which is a paradigmatic example of classical chaos. We emphasize connections with the concept of resonance between integrable optimal paths and weak periodic perturbations, as well as our previous work on ``multipaths,'' and connect the optimal path chaos to instabilities in the underlying quantum trajectories.
Abstract The dynamics of Gaussian states for open quantum systems described by Lindblad equations can be solved analytically for systems with quadratic Hamiltonians and linear Lindbladians, showing the familiar phenomena of dissipation and decoherence. It is well known that the Lindblad dynamics can be expressed as an ensemble average over stochastic pure-state dynamics, which can be interpreted as individual experimental implementations, where the form of the stochastic dynamics depends on the measurement setup. Here we consider quantum-jump and stochastic Schrödinger dynamics for initially Gaussian states. While both unravellings converge to the same Lindblad dynamics when averaged, the individual dynamics can differ qualitatively. For the stochastic Schrödinger equation, Gaussian states remain Gaussian during the evolution, with stochastic differential equations governing the evolution of the phase-space centre and a deterministic evolution of the covariance matrix. In contrast to this, individual pure-state dynamics arising from the quantum-jump evolution do not remain Gaussian in general. Applying results developed in the non-Hermitian context for Hagedorn wavepackets, we formulate a method to generate quantum-jump trajectories that is described entirely in terms of the evolution of an underlying Gaussian state. To illustrate the behaviours of the different unravellings in comparison to the Lindblad dynamics, we consider two examples in detail, which can be largely treated analytically, a harmonic oscillator subject to position measurement and a damped harmonic oscillator. In both cases, we highlight the differences as well as the similarities of the stochastic Schrödinger and the quantum-jump dynamics.