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arXiv:quant-ph/0107019 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Atomic retrodiction

Stephen Mark Barnett, David Thomas Pegg, John Jeffers, Ottavia Jedrkiewicz

Published Aug 2, 2000• 21 citations
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Abstract

Measurement of a quantum system provides information concerning the state in which it was prepared. In this paper we show how the retrodictive formalism can be used to evaluate the probability associated with any one of a given set of preparation events. We illustrate our method by calculating the retrodictive density operator for a two-level atom coupled to the electromagnetic field.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/33/16/309

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Measurement of a quantum system provides information concerning the state in which it was prepared. In this paper we show how the retrodictive formalism can be used to evaluate the probability associated with any one of a given set of preparation events. We illustrate our method by calculating the retrodictive density operator for a two-level atom coupled to the electromagnetic field.
Quantum retrodiction involves finding the probabilities for various preparation events given a measurement event. This theory has been studied for some time but mainly as an interesting concept associated with time asymmetry in quantum mechanics. Recent interest in quantum communications and cryptography, however, has provided retrodiction with a potential practical application. For this purpose quantum retrodiction in open systems should be more relevant than in closed systems isolated from the environment. In this paper we study retrodiction in open systems and develop a general master equation for the backward time evolution of the measured state, which can be used for calculating preparation probabilities. We solve the master equation, by way of example, for the driven two-level atom coupled to the electromagnetic field.
In the Jaynes–Cummings model a two-level atom interacts with a single-mode electromagnetic field. Quantum mechanics predicts collapses and revivals in the probability that a measurement will show the atom to be excited at various times after the initial preparation of the atom and field. In retrodictive quantum mechanics we seek the probability that the atom was prepared in a particular state given the initial state of the field and the outcome of a later measurement on the atom. Although this is not simply the time reverse of the usual predictive problem, we demonstrate in this paper that retrodictive collapses and revivals also exist. We highlight the differences between predictive and retrodictive evolutions and describe an interesting situation where the prepared state is essentially unretrodictable.