2 research outputs found
Sequential Strong Measurements and Heat Vision
We study scenarios where a finite set of non-demolition von-Neumann
measurements are available. We note that, in some situations, repeated
application of such measurements allows estimating an infinite number of
parameters of the initial quantum state, and illustrate the point with a
physical example. We then move on to study how the system under observation is
perturbed after several rounds of projective measurements. While in the finite
dimensional case the effect of this perturbation always saturates, there are
some instances of infinite dimensional systems where such a perturbation is
accumulative, and the act of retrieving information about the system increases
its energy indefinitely (i.e., we have `Heat Vision'). We analyze this effect
and discuss a specific physical system with two dichotomic von-Neumann
measurements where Heat Vision is expected to show.Comment: See the Appendix for weird examples of heat visio
Can One Trust Quantum Simulators?
Various fundamental phenomena of strongly-correlated quantum systems such as
high- superconductivity, the fractional quantum-Hall effect, and quark
confinement are still awaiting a universally accepted explanation. The main
obstacle is the computational complexity of solving even the most simplified
theoretical models that are designed to capture the relevant quantum
correlations of the many-body system of interest. In his seminal 1982 paper
[Int. J. Theor. Phys. 21, 467], Richard Feynman suggested that such models
might be solved by "simulation" with a new type of computer whose constituent
parts are effectively governed by a desired quantum many-body dynamics.
Measurements on this engineered machine, now known as a "quantum simulator,"
would reveal some unknown or difficult to compute properties of a model of
interest. We argue that a useful quantum simulator must satisfy four
conditions: relevance, controllability, reliability, and efficiency. We review
the current state of the art of digital and analog quantum simulators. Whereas
so far the majority of the focus, both theoretically and experimentally, has
been on controllability of relevant models, we emphasize here the need for a
careful analysis of reliability and efficiency in the presence of
imperfections. We discuss how disorder and noise can impact these conditions,
and illustrate our concerns with novel numerical simulations of a paradigmatic
example: a disordered quantum spin chain governed by the Ising model in a
transverse magnetic field. We find that disorder can decrease the reliability
of an analog quantum simulator of this model, although large errors in local
observables are introduced only for strong levels of disorder. We conclude that
the answer to the question "Can we trust quantum simulators?" is... to some
extent.Comment: 20 pages. Minor changes with respect to version 2 (some additional
explanations, added references...