This thesis provides an introduction to the quantum mechanical concept of “weak values”. It is followed by the introduction of a communication protocol that takes advantage of the useful properties of these measurements, along with a suggested changeto transmit more complex messages. The robustness of the weak values is presented and then applied and adapted in order to improve the protocol, together with a simulation that provides numerical evidence for its effectiveness.
This thesis provides an introduction to the quantum mechanical concept of “weak values”. It is followed by the introduction of a communication protocol that takes advantage of the useful properties of these measurements, along with a suggested changeto transmit more complex messages. The robustness of the weak values is presented and then applied and adapted in order to improve the protocol, together with a simulation that provides numerical evidence for its effectiveness.
Since its introduction 25 years ago, the quantum weak value has gradually transitioned from a theoretical curiosity to a practical laboratory tool. While its utility is apparent in the recent explosion of weak value experiments, its interpretation has historically been a subject of confusion. Here a pragmatic introduction to the weak value in terms of measurable quantities is presented, along with an explanation for how it can be determined in the laboratory. Further, its application to three distinct experimental techniques is reviewed. First, as a large interaction parameter it can amplify small signals above technical background noise. Second, as a measurable complex value it enables novel techniques for direct quantum state and geometric phase determination. Third, as a conditioned average of generalized observable eigenvalues it provides a measurable window into nonclassical features of quantum mechanics. In this selective review, a single experimental configuration to discuss and clarify each of these applications is used.
The main goal of this thesis is to introdude to readers the concept of weak measure- ments in quantum mechanics. Firstly a model of indirect measuremnts is established as an alternative to Von Neumann measurement postulate. This model leads to a possible generalization in a form of weak measurements. Then the concept of postselection is introduced and involved into the issue of weak measurements which leads to the weak values of physical quantities. All these theoretical concepts are presented using simple model examples. Finally, a discussion in provided on the possible interpretation and of weak values and their experimental verification.
Despite being very influential on both foundations and applications of quantum mechanics, weak values are still somewhat controversial. Although there are some indications that weak values are physical properties of a single quantum system, the common way weak values are presented is statistical: it is commonly believed that for measuring weak values one has to perform many weak measurements over a large ensemble of pre- and postselected particles. Other debates surround the anomalous nature of weak value and even their quantumness. To address these issues, we present some preliminary data showing that anomalous weak values can be measured using just a single detection, i.e. with no statistics. In our experiment, a single click of a detector indicates the weak value as a single photon property, which moreover lies well beyond the range of eigenvelues of the measured operator. Importantly, the uncertainty with which the weak values is measured is smaller than the difference between the weak value and the closet eigenvalue. This is the first experimental realization of robust weak measurements.
The concept of weak value of a quantum mechanical observable is based on a weak measurement followed by a strong measurement of a complementary observable. By applying post-selection, the weak value can, under certain circumstances, have values much higher than would be possible without post-selection, even above the highest eigenvalue of the measurement operator. Weak values have a wide range of applications, starting from the amplification of the resolution in high sensitivity metrology. The weak values have been especially successful in the area of quantum optics, which provides a suitable set of tools for performing the weak measurements with post-selection. The topic of this thesis is to lay the ground for the adaptation of weak values also in other fields of physics, the target being to harness the weak values in cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED), and furthermore in circuit quantum electrodynamics. The main complication in the adaptation in these fields is the de-coherence, which is almost nonexistent in quantum optics. In this thesis we use quantum trajectory simulation to model the weak values under experimentally realistic conditions. We show how the weak values stem from the stochastic description of the quantum mechanical measurement, and that the second order approximation of the weak values is not sufficient in describing the effects of the measurement strength on the weak values. Using the simulation we demonstrate that the measurement resolution can be increased by applying post-selection even in the presence of de-coherence. Finally, we study the correlations between two entangled qubit, and show that post-selection appears to strengthen it.
The field of quantum mechanics has revolutionised physics as a subject. Areas such as information theory, computer science and physical sensing have all been affected by the tremendous successes of various quantum protocols. In this thesis I present my contribution to the development of such non-classical protocols. In classical communication theory a message is always carried by physical particles that interact with a transmitter, after which they travel to a receiver. In this thesis I outline a quantum protocol which allows a receiver to obtain a message without receiving any physical object or particles that have interacted with the transmitter—that is, counterfactually. I build my protocol for counterfactual communication on the principles of interaction-free measurements, ensuring that information always propagates in the opposite direction to the protocol particles. The protocol shows how quantum mechanics breaks the previous premise of communication theory. From the perspective of local observers, it is a beautiful manifestation of the non-locality of interaction-free measurements. Furthermore, it is highly robust against experimental errors and external disturbances. The majority of this part of the thesis is based on my published article ‘Quantum counterfactual communication without a weak trace’ [Phys. Rev. A 94, 062303 (2016)]. Previous to my work, Salih et al. attempted to design a counterfactual communication protocol [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 170502 (2013)]. This protocol has been highly controversial. As counterfactual phenomena impose restrictions on the inter-measurement paths of quantum particles, and the physical reality of such paths lacks description in the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, an extension of current quantum theory is required to facilitate a discussion. In this thesis I present an operational and interpretation-independent methodology, enabling the discussion of inter-measurement paths of quantum particles. I start by considering the interferometers of counterfactual protocols, making the basic assumption that any quantum evolution naturally involves uncontrolled weak interactions. I then show how the Fisher information of these weak interactions, available at the output of counterfactual experiments, can be used to discuss the pre-measurement past of the particles. Based on this analysis, the protocol developed by Salih et al. is found to strongly violate counterfactuality. However, my protocol is more flexible in that it allows particles to propagate in the opposite direction to the message. This leads to counterfactuality being satisfied—even in the presence of large experimental errors. These results are observed both analytically and numerically. This part of the thesis is based on my article ‘Evaluation of counterfactuality in counterfactual communication protocols’ [Phys. Rev. A 96, 062316 (2017)]. The numerical methods are inspired by another of my publications: ‘Protocol for fermionic positive-operator-valued measures’ [Phys. Rev. A 96, 052305 (2017)]. Finally, as the Fisher information measure is found to be useful in evaluating counterfactual protocols, I extend my work by investigating the quantum Fisher information in experiments with general discrete quantum circuits. I prove that the quantum Fisher information of a two-level interaction in a quantum circuit can be expressed by a simple formula. Under certain phase-relations, the formula provides a straightforward connection between the abstract concept of the inter-measurement wavefunction and the quantum Fisher information at the output. With regard to how the information obtained from a certain volume of space influences our perception of classical objects, I argue that the quantum Fisher information measure is highly useful in describing quantum objects. If this measure is applied to observers with a limited set of the experimental measurement outcomes, a quantum object can appear to follow non-classical discontinuous paths. This supports the remarkable conclusion that our perception of the past of a quantum object is subjectively dependent on the measurement we conduct on it.