Abstract Quantum measurement has always been thought of as a formal, sudden projection that changes the system state instantly. However, in real life, the process of measurement involves a physical interaction that takes time to gather the information. The paper discusses the continuous quantum measurement that challenges the traditional instant measurement idea with the detector’s accumulated data continuously uninterruptedly. The paper starts by laying down the basic mathematics, which gradually leads to the modern Stochastic master equations and quantum trajectories through generalized measurements positive operator-valued measures and quantum instruments. The crucial experimental setups like circuit QED, trapped ions, and optomechanics are delineated where these notions have been put into practice. The significant ramifications of ongoing observation are then discussed, starting with the fundamental Zeno effect, measurement backaction, and continuing through the active steering of quantum states and the emergence of measurement-induced phase transitions in many-body systems. One of the main ideas of the paper is the attribute of measurement as a powerful control method which enables real-time feedback, state stabilization, and continuous quantum error correction. Finally, the paper points out the open problems that remain in the areas of many-body systems’ scalability and the coupling of machine learning with real-time quantum control.
Abstract Quantum measurement has always been thought of as a formal, sudden projection that changes the system state instantly. However, in real life, the process of measurement involves a physical interaction that takes time to gather the information. The paper discusses the continuous quantum measurement that challenges the traditional instant measurement idea with the detector’s accumulated data continuously uninterruptedly. The paper starts by laying down the basic mathematics, which gradually leads to the modern Stochastic master equations and quantum trajectories through generalized measurements positive operator-valued measures and quantum instruments. The crucial experimental setups like circuit QED, trapped ions, and optomechanics are delineated where these notions have been put into practice. The significant ramifications of ongoing observation are then discussed, starting with the fundamental Zeno effect, measurement backaction, and continuing through the active steering of quantum states and the emergence of measurement-induced phase transitions in many-body systems. One of the main ideas of the paper is the attribute of measurement as a powerful control method which enables real-time feedback, state stabilization, and continuous quantum error correction. Finally, the paper points out the open problems that remain in the areas of many-body systems’ scalability and the coupling of machine learning with real-time quantum control.
Developments over the last two decades have opened the path towards quantum technologies in many quantum systems, such as cold atoms, trapped ions, cavity-quantum electrodynamics (QED), and circuit-QED. However, the fragility of quantum states to the effects of measurement and decoherence still poses one of the greatest challenges in quantum technology. An imperative capability in this path is quantum feedback, as it enhances the control possibilities and allows for prolonging coherence times through quantum error correction. While changing parameters from shot to shot of an experiment or procedure can be considered feedback, quantum mechanics also allows for the intriguing possibility of performing feedback operations during the measurement process itself. This broader approach to measurements leads to the concepts of weak measurement, quantum trajectories, and numerous types of feedback with no classical analogs. These types of processes are the primary focus of this review. We introduce the concept of quantum feedback in the context of circuit-QED, an experimental platform with significant potential in quantum feedback and technology. We then discuss several experiments and see how they elucidate the concepts of continuous measurements and feedback. We conclude with an overview of coherent feedback, with application to fault-tolerant error correction.
In quantum mechanics, standard or strong measurement approaches generally result in the collapse of an ensemble of wavefunctions into a stochastic mixture of eigenstates. On the other hand, continuous or weak measurements have the propensity to dynamically control the evolution of quantum states over time, guiding the trajectory of the state into non-trivial superpositions and maintaining state purity. This kind of measurement-induced state steering is of great theoretical and experimental interest for the harnessing of quantum bits or "qubits", which are the fundamental unit of the emerging quantum computer. We explore continuous measurement-based quantum state stabilization through linear feedback control for a single quantum bit. By applying a time-varying Rabi drive that includes a linear feedback term, we show that the fixed points of the continuous measurement may be relocated. Analytical derivations of Itô Stochastic Master Equations being ideal models, we employ them to derive the projected ensemble average while utilizing numerical simulations to characterize the stability of the set of possible fixed points, as well as their modified collapse time-scales. We include the effects of realistic experimental non-idealities, such as environmental energy relaxation, dephasing, time-delay, and inefficient measurement. Ultimately, we discuss potential experimental implementations from collaborating universities.
This review develops a control-theoretic perspective on measurement-based feedback for continuously monitored open quantum systems, with the main analysis focused on finite-dimensional systems governed by diffusive stochastic master equations. We introduce the relevant state-space, invariant-subspace, and quantum non-demolition structures, interpret quantum filtering as nonlinear observer dynamics, and review open-loop asymptotics, filter stability, state-feedback stabilization, robustness, and reduced-order observer-based control. Particular emphasis is placed on a recurrence--contraction framework, in which Hamiltonian feedback removes non-target invariant obstructions while measurement-induced dynamics provide local exponential contraction. Although the detailed analysis is developed for finite-dimensional diffusive models, the underlying measurement--estimation--feedback architecture is relevant across a broad range of quantum platforms. We further discuss implementation challenges and open problems involving scalable estimation, sampling and delay, adaptation, hybrid and non-Markovian dynamics, practical stability, optimal control, and learning-based design. By organizing these developments around invariance, estimation, recurrence, and contraction, the review provides a tutorial bridge between measurement-based quantum feedback and nonlinear stochastic control.
Abstract This chapter discusses a novel aspect of quantum control, namely quantum feedback. It explains the crucial distinction between measurement-based feedback and autonomous feedback. In the former, a detector performs a measurement of the variable to be controlled, and information passes from the quantum system to a classical system, which processes it to produce a correction signal sent to an actuator acting back on the quantum system. In the latter, the detector-processor-actuator part of the controller is another quantum system coupled to the controlled system, and no information need pass through classical channels. The chapter treats the useful formalism of the quantum stochastic master equation, a basic element of knowledge essential to the detailed understanding of measurement-based feedback, and the design of the filters for the corresponding controller. The autonomous aspect of quantum feedback is illustrated by a discussion of analog, continuous error correction of a qubit by quantum optics elements.
The standard quantum formalism introduced at the undergraduate level treats measurement as an instantaneous collapse. In reality however, no physical process can occur over a truly infinitesimal time interval. A more subtle investigation of open quantum systems lead to the theory of continuous measurement and quantum trajectories, in which wave function collapse occurs over a finite time scale associated with an interaction. Within this formalism, it becomes possible to ask many new questions that would be trivial or even ill-defined in the context of the more basic measurement model. In this thesis, we investigate both theoretically and experimentally what fundamentally new capabilities arise when an experimental apparatus can resolve the continuous dynamics of a measurement. Theoretically, we show that when one can perform feedback operations on the timescale of the measurement process, the resulting tools provide significantly more control over entanglement generation, and in some settings can generate it optimally. We derive these results using a novel formalism which encompasses most known quantum feedback protocols. Experimentally, we show that continuous measurement allows one to observe the dynamics of a system undergoing simultaneous non-commuting measurements, which provides a reinterpretation of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Finally, we combine the theoretical focus on quantum feedback with the experimental capabilities of superconducting circuits to implement a feedback controlled quantum amplifier. The resulting system is capable of adaptive measurement, which we use to perform the first canonical phase measurement.
Measurement and feedback control are essential features of quantum science, with applications ranging from quantum technology protocols to information-to-work conversion in quantum thermodynamics. Theoretical descriptions of feedback control are typically given in terms of stochastic equations requiring numerical solutions, or are limited to linear feedback protocols. Here we present a formalism for continuous quantum measurement and feedback, both linear and nonlinear. Our main result is a quantum Fokker-Planck master equation describing the joint dynamics of a quantum system and a detector with finite bandwidth. For fast measurements, we derive a Markovian master equation for the system alone, amenable to analytical treatment. We illustrate our formalism by investigating two basic information engines, one quantum and one classical.