dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaAdiabatic Measurements on Metastable Systems
| Authors | Y. Aharonov, S. Massar, S. Popescu, J. Tollaksen, L. Vaidman |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/9602011 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9602011 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.983 |
| Journal | Phys.Rev.Lett. 77 (1996) 983-987 |
Abstract
In several situations, most notably when describing metastable states, a system can evolve according to an effective non hermitian Hamiltonian. To each eigenvalue of a non hermitian Hamiltonian is associated an eigenstate $\vert\phi\rangle$ which evolves forward in time and an eigenstate $\langle{\psi}\vert$ which evolves backward in time. Quantum measurements on such systems are analyzed in detail with particular emphasis on adiabatic measurements in which the measuring device is coupled weakly to the system. It is shown that in this case the outcome of the measurement of an observable $A$ is the weak value $\langle{\psi}\vert A\vert\phi\rangle / \langle{\psi}\vert{\phi}\rangle $ associated to the two-state vector $\langle{\psi}\vert$ $\vert\phi\rangle$ corresponding to one of the eigenvalues of the non hermitian Hamiltonian. The possibility of performing such measurements in a laboratory is discussed.
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"abstract": "In several situations, most notably when describing metastable states, a\nsystem can evolve according to an effective non hermitian Hamiltonian. To each\neigenvalue of a non hermitian Hamiltonian is associated an eigenstate\n$\\vert\\phi\\rangle$ which evolves forward in time and an eigenstate\n$\\langle{\\psi}\\vert$ which evolves backward in time. Quantum measurements on\nsuch systems are analyzed in detail with particular emphasis on adiabatic\nmeasurements in which the measuring device is coupled weakly to the system. It\nis shown that in this case the outcome of the measurement of an observable $A$\nis the weak value $\\langle{\\psi}\\vert A\\vert\\phi\\rangle /\n\\langle{\\psi}\\vert{\\phi}\\rangle $ associated to the two-state vector\n$\\langle{\\psi}\\vert$ $\\vert\\phi\\rangle$ corresponding to one of the eigenvalues\nof the non hermitian Hamiltonian. The possibility of performing such\nmeasurements in a laboratory is discussed.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/9602011",
"authors": [
"Y. Aharonov",
"S. Massar",
"S. Popescu",
"J. Tollaksen",
"L. Vaidman"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.983",
"journal_ref": "Phys.Rev.Lett. 77 (1996) 983-987",
"title": "Adiabatic Measurements on Metastable Systems",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9602011"
},
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