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arXiv:quant-ph/0303031 · New Journal of Physics

Contractive Schrödinger cat states for a free mass

Lorenza Viola, Roberto Onofrio

Published Jan 17, 2003• 6 citations
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Abstract

Contractive states for a free quantum particle were introduced by Yuen (Yuen H P 1983 Phys. Rev. Lett. 51 719) in an attempt to evade the standard quantum limit for repeated position measurements. We show how appropriate families of two- and three-component `Schrödinger cat states' are able to support non-trivial correlations between the position and momentum observables leading to contractive behaviour. The existence of contractive Schrödinger cat states is suggestive of potential novel roles of non-classical states for precision measurement schemes.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/5/1/305

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Contractive states for a free quantum particle were introduced by Yuen (Yuen H P 1983 Phys. Rev. Lett. 51 719) in an attempt to evade the standard quantum limit for repeated position measurements. We show how appropriate families of two- and three-component `Schrödinger cat states' are able to support non-trivial correlations between the position and momentum observables leading to contractive behaviour. The existence of contractive Schrödinger cat states is suggestive of potential novel roles of non-classical states for precision measurement schemes.
The familiar minimum-uncertainty wave packets for masses are generalized in analogy with the two-photon coherent states of the radiation field. The free evolution of a subclass of these states, the contractive states, leads to a narrowing of the position uncertainty in contrast with the usual minimum-uncertainty wave packets. As a consequence the standard quantum limit for monitoring the positions of a free mass can be breached. Further implications on quantum nondemolition measurements are discussed.
An explicit interaction-Hamiltonian realization of a measurement of the free-mass position with the following properties is given: (1) The probability distribution of the readouts is exactly the same as the free-mass position distribution just before the measurement. (2) The measurement leaves the free mass in a contractive state just after the measurement. It is shown that this measurement breaks the standard quantum limit for the free-mass position in the sense sharpened by the recent controversy.
There are heuristic arguments proposing that the accuracy of monitoring position of a free mass mmm is limited by the standard quantum limit (SQL): ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}(X(t))\ensuremath{\ge}{\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}(X(0))+({t}^{2}/{m}^{2}){\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}(P(0))\ensuremath{\ge}\ensuremath{\hbar}t/m$, where ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}(X(t))$ and ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}(P(t))$ denote variances of the Heisenberg representation position and momentum operators. Yuen [Phys. Rev. Lett. 51, 719 (1983)] discovered that there are contractive states for which this result is incorrect. Here I prove universally valid rigorous quantum limits (RQL), viz. rigorous upper and lower bounds on ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}(X(t))$ in terms of ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}(X(0))$ and ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{2}(P(0))$, given by Eq. (12) for a free mass and by Eq. (36) for an oscillator. I also obtain the maximally contractive and maximally expanding states which saturate the RQL, and use the contractive states to set up an Ozawa-type measurement theory with accuracies respecting the RQL but beating the standard quantum limit. The contractive states for oscillators improve on the Schr\"odinger coherent states of constant variance and may be useful for gravitational wave detection and optical communication.
Monitoring photon quadratures and free masses are useful tools to detect small disturbances such as gravitational waves.Here we report a large class of states for photon quadratures and free masses potentially useful for this purpose: (1)'generic coherent states' (GCS) of photons, whose width is independent of time and uncertainty product $σ(x) σ(p) $ is arbitrarily large (a generalization of the minimum uncertainty Schrödinger coherent states and (2) `squeezed generic contractive states' (SGCS) for photons and free masses (a generalization of the Yuen states \cite{Yuen}) whose width decreases with time ,uncertainty product is arbitrarily large, and the covariance squared $ ^2 $ has an arbitrary value within the allowed range (0,4σ2(x)σ2(p)−1 )(0,4 σ^2 (x) σ^2 (p) -1\>)(0,4σ2(x)σ2(p)−1). Dedicated to the 125th birth anniversary of S. N. Bose.