Quantum Zeno effect and light - dark periods for a single atom

DOI10.1088/0305-4470/30/4/031zbMATH Open1001.81500arXivquant-ph/9611020OpenAlexW3100645409MaRDI QIDQ4783642FDOQ4783642

Authors: Almut Beige, Gerhard C. Hegerfeldt

Publication date: 8 December 2002

Published in: Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The quantum Zeno effect (QZE) predicts a slow-down of the time development of a system under rapidly repeated ideal measurements, and experimentally this was tested for an ensemble of atoms using short laser pulses for non-selective state measurements. Here we consider such pulses for selective measurements on a single system. Each probe pulse will cause a burst of fluorescence or no fluorescence. If the probe pulses were strictly ideal measurements, the QZE would predict periods of fluorescence bursts alternating with periods of no fluorescence (light and dark periods) which would become longer and longer with increasing frequency of the measurements. The non-ideal character of the measurements is taken into account by incorporating the laser pulses in the interaction, and this is used to determine the corrections to the ideal case. In the limit, when the time between the laser pulses goes to zero, no freezing occurs but instead we show convergence to the familiar macroscopic light and dark periods of the continuously driven Dehmelt system. An experiment of this type should be feasible for a single atom or ion in a trap

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9611020

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum optics (81V80) General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Atomic physics (81V45)

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