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Fortschritte der Physik

The beginning of time observed in quantum jumps

Arno Böhm, Peter William Bryant, Haydar Uncu, S. Wickramasekara, Wolfgang P. Schleich

Published Apr 20, 2017• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The phenomenon of quantum jumps observed in a single ion stored in a trap brings to light intimate connections between three different concepts of quantum physics: (i) quantum state trajectories, (ii) Gamow states, and (iii) the arrow of time. In particular, it allows us to identify the starting time of the semigroup time evolution.
DOI
10.1002/prop.201700015

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The exponential decay (or growth) of resonances provides an arrow of time which is described as the semigroup time evolution of Gamow vector in a new formulation of quantum mechanics. Another direction of time follows from the fact that a state must first be prepared before observables can be measured in it. Applied to scattering experiments, this produces another quantum mechanical arrow of time. The mathematical statements of these two arrows of time are shown to be equivalent. If the semigroup arrow is interpreted as microphysical irreversibility and if the arrow of time from the prepared in-state to its effect on the detector of a scattering experiment is interpreted as causality, then the equivalence of their mathematical statements implies that causality and irreversibility are interrelated.
Experiments on quantum systems are usually divided into preparation of states and the registration of observables. Using the traditional mathematical methods (the Hilbert space and Schwartz space of distribution theory), it is not possible to distinguish mathematically between observables and states. The Hilbert space as well as Schwartz space boundary conditions for the dynamical equations lead by mathematic theorems (Stone-von Neumann) to unitary group with — ∞ < t < ∞ . But in the experimental set-up, one clearly distinguishes between the preparation of a state and the registration of an observable in that state. Furthermore, a state must be prepared first before an observable can be measured in this state (causality). This suggests time asymmetric boundary conditions for the dynamical equations of quantum theory. Such boundary conditions have been provided by Hardy space in the Lax-Phillips theory for electromagnetic and acoustic scattering phenomena. The Paley-Wiener theorem for Hardy space then leads to semi-group and time asymmetry in quantum physics. It introduces a finite "beginning of time" t 0 for a time asymmetric quantum theory, which have been observed as an ensemble of finite times t ( i ) 0 , the onset times of dark periods in the quantum jump experiments on a single ion.
We use a recent stochastical diffusion model of quantum evolution to represent the evolution of a three-level quantum system undergoing quantum jumps. This is possible because the continuous change in the quantum state in this diffusion model is so rapid that it appears to be instantaneous in comparison with the time between transitions. Experimental data from a study of the intermittent fluorescence of a single trapped 24Mg+ ion and equivalent theoretical data are shown to be strikingly similar. Statistical comparisons of the data are also made.
A quantum theory that applies to the (closed) universe needs to be time asymmetric because of the cosmological arrow of time. The preparation $\ensuremath{\Rightarrow}$ registration arrow of time (a state must be prepared before an observable can be detected in it) of the quantum mechanics of measured systems provides a phenomenological reason for an asymmetric semigroup time evolution. The standard theory in the Hilbert space (HS) is inadequate for either since the mathematics of the HS allows only reversible unitary group evolution and time symmetric boundary conditions. The mathematical theory that describes time-asymmetric quantum physics in addition to providing the mathematics for the Dirac kets is the rigged Hilbert space (RHS) theory. It uses a pair of RHS's of Hardy class with complementary analyticity property, one for the prepared states (``in states'') and the other for the registered observables (``out states''). The RHS's contain Gamow kets which have all the properties needed to represent decaying states and resonances. Gamow kets have only asymmetric time evolution. The neutral kaon system is used to show that quasistationary microphysical systems can be experimentally isolated if their time of preparation can be accurately identified. The theoretical predictions for a Gamow ket have the same features as the observed decay probabilities, including the time ordering. This time ordering is the same as the time ordering in the probabilities of histories for the quantum universe. The fundamental quantum mechanical arrow of time represented by the semigroup in the RHS is therefore the same as the cosmological arrow of time, assuming that the universe can be considered a closed quantum system.
Introduction The quantum theory of atoms and molecules had its origin in the famous 1913 paper of Bohr [186] in which he suggested that the interaction of radiation and atoms occurred with the transition of an atom from one stationary internal state to another, accompanied by the emission or absorption of radiation of a frequency determined by the energy difference between these states. These transitions came to be known as ‘quantum jumps’. Since all experiments until the late 1970s used to be carried out with large ensembles of atoms and molecules, these jumps were masked and could not be directly observed; they were only inferred from spectroscopic data. In fact, with the advent of quantum mechanics they eventually came to be regarded as artefacts of Bohr's simple-minded semi-classical model. But with the availability of coherent light sources and single ions prepared in ion traps [187], [188], and optically cooled [189], [190], the issue has been reopened with the experimental demonstration of quantum jumps in single ions [191], [192], [193]. These experiments have also opened up the contentious issue of wave function collapse or reduction on measurement, as they can be regarded as making collapse visible on the oscilloscope screen [191]. Evidence of the discrete nature of quantum transitions in a single quantum system had been accumulating from the observation of photon anti-bunching in single-atom resonance fluorescence [194], the tunneling of single electrons in metal–oxide-–semiconductor junctions [195] and spin-flips of individual electrons in a Penning trap [196].