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Repeated weak measurements on a single copy are invasive

N. D. Hari Dass

Published Jun 2, 2014• 1 citation
OpenAlex

Abstract

In this paper we investigate repeated weak measurements,without post-selection, on a \emph{single copy} of an \emph{unknown} quantum state. The resulting random walk in state space is precisely characterised in terms of joint probabilities for outcomes. We conclusively answer, in the negative, the very important question whether the statistics of such repeated measurements can determine the unknown state. We quantify the notion of error in this context as the departure of a suitably averaged density matrix from the initial state. When the number of weak measurements is small the original state is preserved to a great degree, but only an ensemble of such measurements, of a complete set of observables, can determine the unknown state. By a careful analysis of errors, it is shown that there is a precise tradeoff between errors and \emph{invasiveness}. Lower the errors, greater the invasiveness. Though the outcomes are not independently distributed, an analytical expression is obtained for how averages are distributed, which is shown to be the way outcomes are distributed in a \emph{strong measurement}. An \emph{error-disturbance} relation, though not of the Ozawa-type, is also derived. In the limit of vanishing errors, the invasiveness approaches what would obtain from strong measurements.

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In this paper we investigate repeated weak measurements,without post-selection, on a \emph{single copy} of an \emph{unknown} quantum state. The resulting random walk in state space is precisely characterised in terms of joint probabilities for outcomes. We conclusively answer, in the negative, the very important question whether the statistics of such repeated measurements can determine the unknown state. We quantify the notion of error in this context as the departure of a suitably averaged density matrix from the initial state. When the number of weak measurements is small the original state is preserved to a great degree, but only an ensemble of such measurements, of a complete set of observables, can determine the unknown state. By a careful analysis of errors, it is shown that there is a precise tradeoff between errors and \emph{invasiveness}. Lower the errors, greater the invasiveness. Though the outcomes are not independently distributed, an analytical expression is obtained for how averages are distributed, which is shown to be the way outcomes are distributed in a \emph{strong measurement}. An \emph{error-disturbance} relation, though not of the Ozawa-type, is also derived. In the limit of vanishing errors, the invasiveness approaches what would obtain from strong measurements.
In this paper we investigate repeated weak measurements,without post-selection, on a \emph{single copy} of an \emph{unknown} quantum state. The resulting random walk in state space is precisely characterised in terms of joint probabilities for outcomes. We conclusively answer, in the negative, the very important question whether the statistics of such repeated measurements can determine the unknown state. We quantify the notion of error in this context as the departure of a suitably averaged density matrix from the initial state. When the number of weak measurements is small the original state is preserved to a great degree, but only an ensemble of such measurements, of a complete set of observables, can determine the unknown state. By a careful analysis of errors, it is shown that there is a precise tradeoff between errors and \emph{invasiveness}. Lower the errors, greater the invasiveness. Though the outcomes are not independently distributed, an analytical expression is obtained for how averages are distributed, which is shown to be the way outcomes are distributed in a \emph{strong measurement}. An \emph{error-disturbance} relation, though not of the Ozawa-type, is also derived. In the limit of vanishing errors, the invasiveness approaches what would obtain from strong measurements.
Three recent results on weak measurements are presented. They are: i) repeated measurements on a single copy can not provide any information on it and further, that in the limit of very large such measurements, weak measurements have exactly the same characterstics as strong measurements, ii) the apparent non-invasiveness of weak measurements is \emph{illusory} and they are no more advantageous than strong measurements even in the specific context of establishing Leggett-Garg inequalities, when errors are properly taken into account, and, finally, iii) weak value measurements are optimal, in the precise sense of Wootters and Fields, when the post-selected states are mutually unbiased with respect to the eigenstates of the observable whose weak values are being measured. Notion of weak value coordinates for state spaces are introduced and elaborated.
It is widely assumed that the quantum fluctuations of the meter readout in a weak measurement make it impossible to identify the contributions originating from the individual values of the physical property observed in the measurement. Here, we show that a careful analysis of the quantum dynamics of the meter system allows us to identify a universal relation between quantum interference in the post-selection probability, and quantum interference in the statistics of the meter readout. The analysis reveals that quantum interference modifies the readout distribution of the meter in two ways, a diffusion term that identifies the appropriate operator ordering in the post-selected variance of the observed system property, and a wavefunction-dependent update of the initial meter statistics based on the effect of back action on the post-selection probability. Our results show that the statistical patterns described by meter interference provide important details about the physics of post-selection in weak measurements, allowing us to exclude the possibility of statistical artefacts in the experimental observation of weak values.
The reconstruction of quantum states from a sufficient set of experimental data can be achieved with arbitrarily weak measurement interactions. Since such weak measurements have negligible back action, the quantum state reconstruction is also valid for the postselected subensembles usually considered in weak measurement paradoxes. It is shown that postselection can then be identified with a statistical decomposition of the initial density matrix into transient density matrices conditioned by the anticipated measurement outcomes. This result indicates that it is possible to ascribe the properties determined by the final measurement outcome to each individual quantum system before the measurement has taken place. The ``collapse'' of the pure state wave function in a measurement can then be understood in terms of the classical ``collapse'' of a probability distribution as new information becomes available.
Weak measurements can provide a complete characterization of post-selected ensembles, including the uncertainties of observables. Interestingly, the average uncertainties for pure initial and final states are always zero, suggesting the kind of complete knowledge that would allow a knowledge of past, presence and future in the sense of Laplace's demon. However, the quantum version actually describes cancellations of positive and negative uncertainties made possible by the strangeness of weak values. In this paper, I take a closer look at the relation between statistics and causality in quantum mechanics, in an attempt to recover the traces of classical determinism in the statistical relations of quantum measurement outcomes.
We apply the notion of \emph{optimality} of measurements for state determination(tomography) as originally given by Wootters and Fields to \emph{weak value tomography} of \emph{pure states}. They defined measurements to be optimal if they 'minimised' the effects of statistical errors. For technical reasons they actually maximised the state averaged information, precisely quantified as the negative logarithm of 'error volume'. In this paper we optimise both the state averaged information as well as error volumes. We prove, for Hilbert spaces of arbitrary (finite) dimensionality, that varieties of weak value measurements are optimal when the post-selected bases are \emph{mutually unbiased} with respect to the eigenvectors of the observable being measured. We prove a number of important results about the geometry of state spaces when expressed through the weak values as coordinates. We derive an expression for the Kaëhler potential for the N-dimensional case with the help of which we give an exact treatment of the arbitrary-spin case.