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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical

Pointer supershifts and superoscillations in weak measurements

Michael Berry, Pragya Shukla

Published Nov 29, 2011• 70 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The association between large shifts of a pointer in a weak measurement and fast oscillations in an associated function involving the pre- and post-selected states has been clarified in a recent paper (Aharonov et al 2011 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor . 44 365304 ). Here we explore the association further for the case of an observable with N discrete eigenvalues, by calculating and illustrating how the supershift emerges, even for N = 2, as the uncertainty in the pointer position increases. This happens if the initial pointer wavefunction is Gaussian or Lorentzian but not if it is exponential.

DOI
10.1088/1751-8113/45/1/015301

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The association between large shifts of a pointer in a weak measurement and fast oscillations in an associated function involving the pre- and post-selected states has been clarified in a recent paper (Aharonov et al 2011 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor . 44 365304 ). Here we explore the association further for the case of an observable with N discrete eigenvalues, by calculating and illustrating how the supershift emerges, even for N = 2, as the uncertainty in the pointer position increases. This happens if the initial pointer wavefunction is Gaussian or Lorentzian but not if it is exponential.
Superoscillations, namely regions where a band-limited function f (x) varies faster than the fastest of its Fourier components k, generate the illusion that the Fourier content is ?supershifted? so as to lie outside the spectrum of the function. The relation between supershifts and superoscillations, central to the quantum weak measurements scheme, is explored in terms of two different representations of the local Fourier transform in the ?phase space? (x, k). The Wigner function W(x, k), regarded as a function of k for fixed x, inherits the band-limited property of f (x). Neverthless, its local k average can lie outside the spectrum because W, although real, posesses negative values. The local Wigner average of k equals the local wavenumber at x (local weak value of momentum), defined as the phase variation k loc(x)?=?? x arg f (x). By contrast, the Husimi function H(x, k), i.e. the windowed Fourier transform with window width L, corresponding to squeezing of the coherent state associated with (x, k) (and representing the pointer wavefunction after a weak measurement), is positive-definite. But it is not band-limited, and the local Husimi average of k equals k loc if L is small enough. These properties are illustrated numerically with two superoscillatory functions.
Anomalous weak values and superoscillations allow a pointer to exhibit an effective shift outside the eigenvalue range of the measured observable. We reformulate this effect in a phase-space path-integral language. For each eigenvalue branch aja_jaj​ of the measured observable, {the interaction couples aja_jaj​ to the pointer position x^p\hat{x}_px^p​ and thereby translates the conjugate pointer momentum by γajγa_jγaj​.} After postselection, {the branch-conditioned amplitudes are coherently superposed with coefficients chosen to produce a superoscillatory approximation. When this conditional amplitude acts on an initial pointer momentum wavepacket for which the finite superoscillatory-window condition is satisfied, the resulting momentum wavefunction behaves as if it had been translated by γAwγA_wγAw​, rather than by any of the eigenvalue-conditioned shifts γajγa_jγaj​. This yields an effective path-integral representation of anomalous weak pointer shifts and motivates their interpretation in terms of interference among finite coarse-grained histories.} We discuss how this picture bears on conservation-law questions.
A weak measurement on a system is made by coupling a pointer weakly to the system and then measuring the position of the pointer. If the initial wave function for the pointer is real, the mean displacement of the pointer is proportional to the so-called weak value of the observable being measured. This gives an intuitively direct way of understanding weak measurement. However, if the initial pointer wave function takes complex values, the relationship between pointer displacement and weak value is not quite so simple, as pointed out recently by Jozsa [R. Jozsa, Phys. Rev. A 76, 044103 (2007)]. This is even more striking in the case of sequential weak measurements [G. Mitchison, R. Jozsa, and S. Popescu, Phys. Rev. A 76, 062105 (2007)]. These are carried out by coupling several pointers at different stages of the evolution of the system, and the relationship between the products of the measured pointer positions and the sequential weak values can become extremely complicated for an arbitrary initial pointer wave function. Surprisingly, all this complication vanishes when one calculates the cumulants of pointer positions. These are directly proportional to the cumulants of sequential weak values. This suggests that cumulants have a fundamental physical significance for weak measurement.
Superoscillating functions and supershifts appear naturally in weak measurements in physics. Their evolution as initial conditions in the time-dependent Schrödinger equation is an important and challenging problem in quantum mechanics and mathematical analysis. The concept that encodes the persistence of superoscillations during the evolution is the (more general) supershift property of the solution. In this paper, we give a unified approach to determine the supershift property for the solution of the time-dependent one-dimensional Schrödinger equation. The main advantage and novelty of our results is that they only require suitable estimates and regularity assumptions on the Green's function, but not its explicit form. With this efficient general technique, we are able to treat various potentials.
Superoscillating functions and supershifts appear naturally in weak measurements in physics. Their evolution as initial conditions in the time-dependent Schrödinger equation is an important and challenging problem in quantum mechanics and mathematical analysis. The concept that encodes the persistence of superoscillations during the evolution is the (more general) supershift property of the solution. In this paper, we give a unified approach to determine the supershift property for the solution of the time-dependent one-dimensional Schrödinger equation. The main advantage and novelty of our results is that they only require suitable estimates and regularity assumptions on the Green’s function, but not its explicit form. With this efficient general technique, we are able to treat various potentials.