Using Bochner's theorem, we derive a necessary and sufficient hierarchy of measurable conditions in terms of the characteristic function of quasi-moments of a weakly measured observable. A quantum system that violates any of these conditions is nonclassical in weak measurements. Then, we formulate nonclassicality conditions obtained in terms of modular values that can be easily measured by performing a tomography of the final state of a qubit device. This method provides us direct access to the characteristic function as the generating function of quasi moments of weakly measured observable. In this way, We solve the problem of experimental restrictions on measuring the infinite number of weak quasi-moments.
Using Bochner's theorem, we derive a necessary and sufficient hierarchy of measurable conditions in terms of the characteristic function of quasi-moments of a weakly measured observable. A quantum system that violates any of these conditions is nonclassical in weak measurements. Then, we formulate nonclassicality conditions obtained in terms of modular values that can be easily measured by performing a tomography of the final state of a qubit device. This method provides us direct access to the characteristic function as the generating function of quasi moments of weakly measured observable. In this way, We solve the problem of experimental restrictions on measuring the infinite number of weak quasi-moments.
Statistical functions such as the moment-generating, characteristic, cumulant-generating, and second characteristic functions are standard tools in classical statistics and probability theory. They provide a systematic means to analyze the statistical properties of a system and find applications in diverse fields. While these functions are ubiquitous in classical theory, a quantum counterpart has remained underdeveloped because of the noncommutativity of operators. The absence of such a framework has obscured the connections between statistical quantities and the nonclassical features of quantum mechanics. Here, we construct a framework for quantum statistical functions that addresses these limitations and unifies the languages of quantum statistics. We show that the functions reproduce standard statistical quantities such as expectation values, variance, and covariance upon differentiation. By extending the framework to include pre- and post-selection, we define conditional functions that generate conditional statistical quantities, including the weak value and the weak variance. We further show that multivariable functions, defined with specific operator orderings, correspond to the Kirkwood--Dirac, Margenau--Hill, and Wigner distributions. By generalizing Bochner's theorem within the theory of compactly supported distributions, we obtain a criterion that separates classical statistics from quantum statistics, linking the failure of positive definiteness of the multivariable function to the emergence of quasiprobability. As an application, we import the classical method of moments and generalized method of moments into quantum estimation, introducing quantum estimators that exploit the proposed functions. Our framework reproduces quantum statistical quantities and incorporates the nonclassical features of quasiprobability, providing a basis for further study of quantum statistics.
In this work we generalize the Bochner criterion addressing the characteristic function, i.e., the Fourier transform, of the Glauber-Sudarshan phase-space function. For this purpose we extend the Bochner theorem by including derivatives of the characteristic function. The resulting necessary and sufficient nonclassicality criteria unify previously known moment-based criteria with those based on the characteristic function. For applications of the generalized nonclassicality probes, we provide direct sampling formulas for balanced homodyne detection. A squeezed vacuum state is experimentally realized and characterized with our method. This complete framework---theoretical unification, sampling approach, and experimental implementation---presents an efficient toolbox to characterize quantum states of light for applications in quantum technology.
Abstract Modular value of an observable of a pre- and postselected quantum system is a concept similar to weak value, but in contrast to describing only weak coupling, it can describe the coupling of any strength but only for qubit meters, so it may be used more widely in some scenarios. Besides, modular value has been proved to have advantages on measuring weak values of nonlocal joint observables and nonlocal entanglement states. In this paper, we extend the work of J. S. Lundeen and K. J. Reschb on connection between the measured values of multiparticle observables of a pre- and postselected quantum system and annihilation operator by modular value and give their relation. Based on the above, we propose a new method different from tomography to measure modular values, and we find that our annihilation operator measurement (AOM) method can significantly reduce the number of measurements from O (4 n ) to O (2 n ) compared with the original tomography method.
We propose a method for directly measuring the quantum mechanical pseudo-distribution of observable properties via its characteristic function. Vandermonde matrices of the eigenvalues play a central role in the theory. This proposal directly finds the pseudo-distribution using weak measurements of the generator of position moments (momentum translations). While the pseudo-distribution can be extracted from the data in a theory-agnostic way, it is shown that under quantum-mechanical formalism, the predicted pseudo-distribution is identified with the Kirkwood-Dirac pseudo-distribution. We discuss the construction of both the joint pseudo-distribution and a conditional pseudo-distribution, which is closely connected to weak-value physics. By permuting position and momentum measurements, we give a prescription to directly probe the canonical commutation relation and verify it for any quantum state. This work establishes the theory of a characteristic function approach to pseudo-distributions, as well as providing a constructive approach to measuring them directly.
We introduce an operational measure of nonclassicality for qubit systems based on the violation of Kolmogorov consistency conditions in sequential measurements. In contrast to previous work by Milz et al.~\cite{Milz-2020}, who characterized classicality via NCGD maps, and Sakuldee et al.~\cite{Sakuldee-2022a, Sakuldee-2022b}, who studied quantum correlations under measurement disturbance, our witness explicitly quantifies nonclassicality in terms of the POVM unsharpness parameter az. For projective measurements on an initially diagonal state, the witness vanishes identically, showing that such measurements cannot reveal nonclassicality. However, by generalizing to positive operator-valued measures (POVMs), we find that non-projective measurements can reveal nonclassicality even for diagonal initial states. We derive explicit expressions for the witness for general initial states, including coherences, and show that its maximum value is 1/4, which is a new result achieved for unbiased POVMs, maximal dephasing, and equal initial populations. Our results connect Kolmogorov consistency, Leggett-Garg inequalities, and POVMs, providing an experimentally accessible tool for detecting nonclassicality in qubit systems with potential applications in quantum technology certification.
The time-symmetric formalism endows the weak measurement and its outcome, the weak value, with many unique features. In particular, it allows a direct tomography of quantum states without resorting to complicated reconstruction algorithms and provides an operational meaning to wave functions and density matrices. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate the direct tomography of a measurement apparatus by taking the backward direction of weak measurement formalism. Our protocol works rigorously with the arbitrary measurement strength, which offers improved accuracy and precision. The precision can be further improved by taking into account the completeness condition of the measurement operators, which also ensures the feasibility of our protocol for the characterization of the arbitrary quantum measurement. Our work provides new insight on the symmetry between quantum states and measurements, as well as an efficient method to characterize a measurement apparatus.