Time reversal symmetry of generalized quantum measurements with past and future boundary conditions

DOI10.1007/S40509-019-00182-WzbMATH Open1423.81027arXiv1801.04364OpenAlexW3106310040MaRDI QIDQ2329967FDOQ2329967

Authors: Sreenath K. Manikandan, Andrew N. Jordan 

Publication date: 18 October 2019

Published in: Quantum Studies: Mathematics and Foundations (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We expand the time reversal symmetry arguments of quantum mechanics, originally proposed by Wigner in the context of unitary dynamics, to contain situations including generalized measurements for monitored quantum systems. We propose a scheme to derive the time reversed measurement operators by considering the Schr"{o}dinger picture dynamics of a qubit coupled to a measuring device, and show that the time reversed measurement operators form a Positive Operator Valued Measure (POVM) set. We present three particular examples to illustrate time reversal of measurement operators: (1) the Gaussian spin measurement, (2) a dichotomous POVM for spin, and (3) the measurement of qubit fluorescence. We then propose a general rule to unravel any rank two qubit measurement, and show that the backward dynamics obeys the retrodicted equations of the forward dynamics starting from the time reversed final state. We demonstrate the time reversal invariance of dynamical equations using the example of qubit fluorescence. We also generalize the discussion of a statistical arrow of time for continuous quantum measurements introduced by Dressel et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 220507 (2017)]: we show that the backward probabilities can be computed from a process similar to retrodiction from the time reversed final state, and extend the definition of an arrow of time to ensembles prepared with pre- and post-selections, where we obtain a non-vanishing arrow of time in general. We discuss sufficient conditions for when time's arrow vanishes and show our method also captures the contributions to time's arrow due to natural physical processes like relaxation of an atom to its ground state. As a special case, we recover the time reversibility of the weak value as its complex conjugate using our method, and discuss how our conclusions differ from the time-symmetry argument of Aharonov-Bergmann-Lebowitz (ABL) rule.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.04364

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zbMATH Keywords

arrow of timetime reversal symmetrycontinuous quantum measurements

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Vector-valued measures and integration (46G10) Quantum measurement theory, state operations, state preparations (81P15) Closed and approximate solutions to the Schrödinger, Dirac, Klein-Gordon and other equations of quantum mechanics (81Q05) Finite-dimensional groups and algebras motivated by physics and their representations (81R05) Spinor and twistor methods applied to problems in quantum theory (81R25) Open systems, reduced dynamics, master equations, decoherence (81S22)

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Cited In (5)

• Quantum detailed balance conditions with time reversal: the finite-dimensional case
• Time-reversal symmetric resolution of unity without background integrals in open quantum systems
• Measurement and collapse within the two-state vector formalism
• Boundary Conditions, Time Reversal and Measurements
• Noninvasiveness and time symmetry of weak measurements

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