2,528 research outputs found
Rapid purification of quantum systems by measuring in a feedback-controlled unbiased basis
Rapid-purification by feedback --- specifically, reducing the mean impurity
faster than by measurement alone --- can be achieved by making the eigenbasis
of the density matrix to be unbiased relative to the measurement basis. Here we
further examine the protocol introduced by Combes and Jacobs [Phys.Rev.Lett.
{\bf 96}, 010504 (2006)] involving continuous measurement of the observable
for a -dimensional system. We rigorously re-derive the lower bound
on the achievable speed-up factor, and also an upper bound, namely
, for all feedback protocols that use measurements in unbiased bases.
Finally we extend our results to independent measurements on a register of
qubits, and derive an upper bound on the achievable speed-up factor that
scales linearly with .Comment: v2: published versio
State and dynamical parameter estimation for open quantum systems
Following the evolution of an open quantum system requires full knowledge of
its dynamics. In this paper we consider open quantum systems for which the
Hamiltonian is ``uncertain''. In particular, we treat in detail a simple system
similar to that considered by Mabuchi [Quant. Semiclass. Opt. 8, 1103 (1996)]:
a radiatively damped atom driven by an unknown Rabi frequency (as
would occur for an atom at an unknown point in a standing light wave). By
measuring the environment of the system, knowledge about the system state, and
about the uncertain dynamical parameter, can be acquired. We find that these
two sorts of knowledge acquisition (quantified by the posterior distribution
for , and the conditional purity of the system, respectively) are quite
distinct processes, which are not strongly correlated. Also, the quality and
quantity of knowledge gain depend strongly on the type of monitoring scheme. We
compare five different detection schemes (direct, adaptive, homodyne of the
quadrature, homodyne of the quadrature, and heterodyne) using four
different measures of the knowledge gain (Shannon information about ,
variance in , long-time system purity, and short-time system purity).Comment: 14 pages, 18 figure
Tradeoff between extractable mechanical work, accessible entanglement, and ability to act as a reference system, under arbitrary superselection rules
Superselection rules (SSRs) limit the mechanical and quantum processing
resources represented by quantum states. However SSRs can be violated using
reference systems to break the underlying symmetry. We show that there is a
duality between the ability of a system to do mechanical work and to act as a
reference system. Further, for a bipartite system in a globally symmetric pure
state, we find a triality between the system's ability to do local mechanical
work, its ability to do ``logical work'' due to its accessible entanglement,
and its ability to act as a shared reference system.Comment: 5 pages, no figures. Extended resubmitted version. Slightly modified
title. Transferred to PR
Inequivalence of pure state ensembles for open quantum systems: the preferred ensembles are those that are physically realizable
An open quantum system in steady state can be represented by
a weighted ensemble of pure states in infinitely many ways. A physically realizable (PR) ensemble is
one for which some continuous measurement of the environment will collapse the
system into a pure state , stochastically evolving such that the
proportion of time for which equals .
Some, but not all, ensembles are PR. This constitutes the preferred ensemble
fact, with the PR ensembles being the preferred ensembles. We present the
necessary and sufficient conditions for a given ensemble to be PR, and
illustrate the method by showing that the coherent state ensemble is not PR for
an atom laser.Comment: 5 pages, no figure
Optomechanical Cooling of a Macroscopic Oscillator by Homodyne Feedback
We propose a simple optomechanical model in which a mechanical oscillator
quadrature could be "cooled" well below its equilibrium temperature by applying
a suitable feedback to drive the orthogonal quadrature by means of the homodyne
current of the radiation field used to probe its position.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, Figures available from authors, to appear in Phys.
Rev. Let
Atom laser coherence and its control via feedback
We present a quantum-mechanical treatment of the coherence properties of a
single-mode atom laser. Specifically, we focus on the quantum phase noise of
the atomic field as expressed by the first-order coherence function, for which
we derive analytical expressions in various regimes. The decay of this function
is characterized by the coherence time, or its reciprocal, the linewidth. A
crucial contributor to the linewidth is the collisional interaction of the
atoms. We find four distinct regimes for the linewidth with increasing
interaction strength. These range from the standard laser linewidth, through
quadratic and linear regimes, to another constant regime due to quantum
revivals of the coherence function. The laser output is only coherent (Bose
degenerate) up to the linear regime. However, we show that application of a
quantum nondemolition measurement and feedback scheme will increase, by many
orders of magnitude, the range of interaction strengths for which it remains
coherent.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, revtex
Defending Continuous Variable Teleportation: Why a laser is a clock, not a quantum channel
It has been argued [T. Rudolph and B.C. Sanders, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 87},
077903 (2001)] that continuous-variable quantum teleportation at optical
frequencies has not been achieved because the source used (a laser) was not
`truly coherent'. Van Enk, and Fuchs [Phys. Rev. Lett, {\bf 88}, 027902
(2002)], while arguing against Rudolph and Sanders, also accept that an
`absolute phase' is achievable, even if it has not been achieved yet. I will
argue to the contrary that `true coherence' or `absolute phase' is always
illusory, as the concept of absolute time (at least for frequencies beyond
direct human experience) is meaningless. All we can ever do is to use an agreed
time standard. In this context, a laser beam is fundamentally as good a `clock'
as any other. I explain in detail why this claim is true, and defend my
argument against various objections. In the process I discuss super-selection
rules, quantum channels, and the ultimate limits to the performance of a laser
as a clock. For this last topic I use some earlier work by myself [Phys. Rev. A
{\bf 60}, 4083 (1999)] and Berry and myself [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 65}, 043803
(2002)] to show that a Heisenberg-limited laser with a mean photon number
can synchronize independent clocks each with a mean-square error of
radians.Comment: 22 pages, to be published in a special issue of J. Opt. B. This is an
extended version of quant-ph/0303116 (the SPIE conference paper
Probability-Changing Cluster Algorithm for Potts Models
We propose a new effective cluster algorithm of tuning the critical point
automatically, which is an extended version of Swendsen-Wang algorithm. We
change the probability of connecting spins of the same type, , in the process of the Monte Carlo spin update. Since we approach the
canonical ensemble asymptotically, we can use the finite-size scaling analysis
for physical quantities near the critical point. Simulating the two-dimensional
Potts models to demonstrate the validity of the algorithm, we have obtained the
critical temperatures and critical exponents which are consistent with the
exact values; the comparison has been made with the invaded cluster algorithm.Comment: 4 pages including 5 eps figures, RevTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Information, disturbance and Hamiltonian quantum feedback control
We consider separating the problem of designing Hamiltonian quantum feedback
control algorithms into a measurement (estimation) strategy and a feedback
(control) strategy, and consider optimizing desirable properties of each under
the minimal constraint that the available strength of both is limited. This
motivates concepts of information extraction and disturbance which are distinct
from those usually considered in quantum information theory. Using these
concepts we identify an information trade-off in quantum feedback control.Comment: 13 pages, multicol Revtex, 2 eps figure
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