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arXiv:2312.10397

On the Validity of the Weak Value Approximation

Benjamin Noë Bauml

Published Dec 16, 2023• 0 citations
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Abstract

The weak value approximation has been in use for thirty-five years, but it has not as of yet received a truly complete derivation, leaving its mathematical validity in a state of limbo. Herein, I fill this gap, deriving the weak value approximation under the von Neumann and qubit probe models. Not only does this provide a level of mathematical support to the weak value approximation not attained in previous works, but the techniques demonstrated in the process might be usable by others to forge similar derivations for alternative models, thus teasing the possibility of even broader validation in the future.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2312.10397

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The weak value approximation has been in use for thirty-five years, but it has not as of yet received a truly complete derivation, leaving its mathematical validity in a state of limbo. Herein, I fill this gap, deriving the weak value approximation under the von Neumann and qubit probe models. Not only does this provide a level of mathematical support to the weak value approximation not attained in previous works, but the techniques demonstrated in the process might be usable by others to forge similar derivations for alternative models, thus teasing the possibility of even broader validation in the future.
The physical meaning of the quantum weak value still remains a matter of debate. Originally introduced by Aharonov et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 1351 (1988).] as another counterintuitive feature of quantum mechanics, it eventually evolved into a practical tool that is widely used. The theoretical framework in which weak values were introduced was given by von Neumann's model of quantum measurements. In this model, a system is submitted to measurement by coupling it to a ``pointer,'' or meter. In the weak-coupling regime, one may perform a low-order Taylor expansion for the evolution operator of the system and meter. This standard approach ties weak values with weak couplings and weak measurements. We report closed-form expressions that can be used to untie weak values from weak measurements. The regime of strong measurements thereby becomes accessible to weak values, without leaving the framework in which the latter were originally introduced. The reported results should also help us to better understand the physical meaning of weak values.
The AAV effect is the well-known phenomenon where a weak measurement followed by post-selection leads to a pointer shift proportional to the weak value of the measured observable. The effect is usually derived by considering a perturbative expansion of the time-evolution operator corresponding to the measurement. We show that the AAV effect can be instead derived given three simple conditions on the pointer states. The most important condition is that the pointer states be approximately indistinguishable. The other two conditions relate the observables used to characterize the pointer with the measured system observable. This intuitive approach does not require any model for the measurement process, but is completely consistent with the usual approach based on the von Neumann Hamiltonian. Moreover, this approach predicts and explains a new phenomenon, called weak echo, where the usual weak value behaviour can re-emerge at high interaction strengths.
The main goal of this thesis is to introdude to readers the concept of weak measure- ments in quantum mechanics. Firstly a model of indirect measuremnts is established as an alternative to Von Neumann measurement postulate. This model leads to a possible generalization in a form of weak measurements. Then the concept of postselection is introduced and involved into the issue of weak measurements which leads to the weak values of physical quantities. All these theoretical concepts are presented using simple model examples. Finally, a discussion in provided on the possible interpretation and of weak values and their experimental verification.
In quantum error correction, the description of the noise channel cannot be completely accurate and fluctuation always appears in the noise channel. It is found that when fluctuation of the physical noise channel is considered, the average effective channel is dependent only on the average of the physical noise channel, and the average of the physical noise channel here plays the role of the independent error model in previous works. Now one may conclude that in the independent error model, the results in previous works are also valid for the average channel where fluctuation exists. In some typical cases, our numerical simulations in the concatenated quantum error-correction protocol with a five-qubit code, seven-qubit Steane code, and nine-qubit Shor confirm this conjecture. For a five-qubit code, the effective channels approximate to the depolarizing channel as the concatenated level increases. For the Steane code, the effective channels approximate to one Pauli channel as the concatenated level increases. For the Shor code, the effective channels approximate to either a Pauli-XXX or Pauli-ZZZ channel in each level, and in the next concatenated level, the effective channels approximate to the other. The numerical results for these codes indicate that the degree of approximation increases as the concatenated level increases, and the fluctuation of the noise channel decays exponentially as concatenated quantum error correction is performed. On the error-correction threshold, the attenuation ratio of the standard deviation of channel fidelity has a roughly stable value. In contrast, standard deviations of off-diagonal elements of the quantum process matrix (Pauli form) decay more quickly than standard deviations of diagonal elements.