Weak values and weak coupling maximizing the output of weak measurements

DOI10.1016/J.AOP.2014.03.007zbMATH Open1343.81016arXiv1307.4524OpenAlexW3102927594MaRDI QIDQ307100FDOQ307100

Antonio Di Lorenzo

Publication date: 1 September 2016

Published in: Annals of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In a weak measurement, the average output $langleoangle$ of a probe that measures an observable $hatA$ of a quantum system undergoing both a preparation in a state $h{o}_i$ and a postselection in a state $E_{m}athrmf$ is, to a good approximation, a function of the weak value $A_w=mathrmTr[E_{f}hatAh{o}_i]/mathrmTr[E_{f}h{o}_i]$, a complex number. For a fixed coupling $lambda$, when the overlap $mathrmTr[E_{f}h{o}_i]$ is very small, $A_w$ diverges, but $langleoangle$ stays finite, often tending to zero for symmetry reasons. This paper answers the questions: what is the weak value that maximizes the output for a fixed coupling? what is the coupling that maximizes the output for a fixed weak value? We derive equations for the optimal values of $A_w$ and $lambda$, and provide the solutions. The results are independent of the dimensionality of the system, and they apply to a probe having a Hilbert space of arbitrary dimension. Using the Schr"{o}dinger-Robertson uncertainty relation, we demonstrate that, in an important case, the amplification $langleoangle$ cannot exceed the initial uncertainty $sigm{a}_o$ in the observable $hato$, we provide an upper limit for the more general case, and a strategy to obtain $langleoangleggsigm{a}_o$.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1307.4524

zbMATH Keywords

optimizationweak measurement

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum measurement theory, state operations, state preparations (81P15)

Cites Work

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Cited In (5)

• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Measurement of a spin-1 system
• How to extract weak values from a mesoscopic electronic system
• Merit of amplification by weak measurement in view of measurement uncertainty
• Weak values of a quantum observable and the cross-Wigner distribution

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