arXiv subjects

Holger F. Hofmann

Publications and source records attributed to Holger F. Hofmann.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

What are the observable effects of the physical properties of a quantum system?

In recent work (Nii et al., arXiv:1603.06291; Iinuma et al., Phys. Rev. A 93, 032104 (2016)(arXiv:1510.03958)) we have studied the relation between experimental outcomes and the physical properties represented by Hilbert space operators of a quantum system. We find that the values of physical properties are determined by the combination of initial and final conditions, which means that eigenstates and eigenvalues should not be misinterpreted as an exclusive set of possible realities. Here, we discuss the practical implications of these results and point out the importance of quantitative relations for a proper understanding of physical effects.

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arXiv2016

On the fundamental role of dynamics in quantum physics

Quantum theory expresses the observable relations between physical properties in terms of probabilities that depend on the specific context described by the "state" of a system. However, the laws of physics that emerge at the macroscopic level are fully deterministic. Here, it is shown that the relation between quantum statistics and deterministic dynamics can be explained in terms of ergodic averages over complex valued probabilities, where the fundamental causality of motion is expressed by an action that appears as the phase of the complex probability multiplied with the fundamental constant hbar. Importantly, classical physics emerges as an approximation of this more fundamental theory of motion, indicating that the assumption of a classical reality described by differential geometry is merely an artefact of an extrapolation from the observation of macroscopic dynamics to a fictitious level of precision that does not exist within our actual experience of the world around us. It is therefore possible to completely replace the classical concepts of trajectories with the more fundamental concept of action phase probabilities as a universally valid description of the deterministic causality of motion that is observed in the physical world.

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arXiv2015

Experimental evaluation of non-classical correlations between measurement outcomes and target observable in a quantum measurement

In general, it is difficult to evaluate measurement errors when the initial and final conditions of the measurement make it impossible to identify the correct value of the target observable. Ozawa proposed a solution based on the operator algebra of observables which has recently been used in experiments investigating the error-disturbance trade-off of quantum measurements. Importantly, this solution makes surprisingly detailed statements about the relations between measurement outcomes and the unknown target observable. In the present paper, we investigate this relation by performing a sequence of two measurements on the polarization of a photon, so that the first measurement commutes with the target observable and the second measurement is sensitive to a complementary observable. While the initial measurement can be evaluated using classical statistics, the second measurement introduces the effects of quantum correlations between the non-commuting physical properties. By varying the resolution of the initial measurement, we can change the relative contribution of the non-classical correlations and identify their role in the evaluation of the quantum measurement. It is shown that the most striking deviation from classical expectations is obtained at the transition between weak and strong measurements, where the competition between different statistical effects results in measurement values well outside the range of possible eigenvalues.

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arXiv2015

Characterization of measurement uncertainties using the correlations between local outcomes obtained from maximally entangled pairs

Joint measurements of non-commuting observables are characterized by unavoidable measurement uncertainties that can be described in terms of the error statistics for input states with well-defined values for the target observables. However, a complete characterization of measurement errors must include the correlations between the errors of the two observables. Here, we show that these correlations appear in the experimentally observable measurement statistics obtained by performing the joint measurement on maximally entangled pairs. For two-level systems, the results indicate that quantum theory requires imaginary correlations between the measurement errors of X and Y since these correlations are represented by the operator product XY=iZ in the measurement operators. Our analysis thus reveals a directly observable consequence of non-commutativity in the statistics of quantum measurements.

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arXiv2015

How quantum paradoxes originate from the non-classical statistics of physical properties related to each other by half-periodic transformations

Quantum paradoxes show that quantum statistics can exceed the limits of positive joint probabilities for physical properties that cannot be measured jointly. It is therefore impossible to describe the relations between the different physical properties of a quantum system by assigning joint realities to their observable values. Instead, recent experimental results obtained by weak measurements suggest that non-classical correlations could be expressed by complex valued quasi-probabilities, where the phases of the complex probabilities express the action of transformations between the non-commuting properties (H. F. Hofmann, New J. Phys. 13, 103009 (2011)). In these relations, negative probabilities necessarily emerge whenever the physical properties involved are related to each other by half-periodic transformations, since such transformations are characterized by action phases of Pi in their complex probabilities. It is therefore possible to trace the failure of realist assumptions back to a fundamental and universally valid relation between statistics and dynamics that associates half-periodic transformations with negative probabilities.

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arXiv2015

On the origin of randomness in quantum mechanics

Quantum statistics originate from the physics of state preparation. It is therefore wrong to think of quantum states as fundamental. In fact, quantum states are merely summaries of dynamical processes that randomize the properties of the system by drawing on the inexhaustible reservoir of quantum fluctuations provided by the physical tools used to control the quantum system. The mathematical form of the "state vector" is actually an expression of the laws of causality which describe the relations between physical properties in terms of the action of transformations. These laws of causality directly associate the macroscopic effects of a physical property in an interaction with the environment with dynamical changes to the system caused by the microscopic properties of that environment.

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arXiv2014

Why the "classical" explanation of weak values by Ferrie and Combes does not work: a comment on Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 120404 (2014)

In Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 120404 (2014) [arXiv:1403.2362], Ferrie and Combes claim that weak values could be a statistical artifact caused by correlations between the disturbance and the post-selection condition imposed on the output. In this comment, we show that the disturbance caused by a weak measurement is sufficiently low to definitely rule out the model proposed by Ferrie and Combes.

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arXiv2014

The quantum laws of physics: a new description of dynamics and causality

It is possible to completely explain all aspects of quantum mechanics by expressing the relations between physical properties in terms of complex conditional probabilities (Phys. Rev. A 89, 042115(2014)). These fully deterministic probabilities replace the classical notions of phase space geometries and continuous trajectories with a more accurate description that takes into account the role of dynamics in the emergence of reality. We can then understand why so many previous attempts to find a detailed explanation of quantum phenomena have failed: the assumption of a static reality breaks down when the interaction needed to obtain a real effect exceeds Planck`s constant. Beyond that limit, complex conditional probabilities are the only valid expression of the fundamental laws of physics.

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arXiv2014

Reasonable conditions for joint probabilities of non-commuting observables

In the operator formalism of quantum mechanics, the density operator describes the complete statistics of a quantum state in terms of d^2 independent elements, where d is the number of possible outcomes for a precise measurement of an observable. In principle, it is therefore possible to express the density operator by a joint probability of two observables that cannot actually be measured jointly because they do not have any common eigenstates. However, such joint probabilities do not refer to an actual measurement outcome, so their definition cannot be based on a set of possible events. Here, I consider the criteria that could specify a unique mathematical form of joint probabilities in the quantum formalism. It is shown that a reasonable set of conditions results in the definition of joint probabilities by ordered products of the corresponding projection operators. It is pointed out that this joint probability corresponds to the quasi probabilities that have recently been observed experimentally in weak measurements.

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arXiv2014

Simultaneous suppression of time and energy uncertainties in a single-photon frequency comb state

A single photon prepared in a time-energy state described by a frequency comb combines the extreme precision of energy defined by a single tooth of the comb with a high sensitivity to small shifts in time defined by the narrowness of a single pulse in the long sequence of pulses that describe the frequency comb state in the time domain. We show how this simultaneous suppression of time and energy uncertainties can be described by a separation of scales and compare this with the suppression of uncertainties in the two particle correlations of an entangled state. To illustrate the sensitivity of the frequency comb states to small shifts in time and frequency, we consider the Hong-Ou-Mandel dips observed in two-photon interference when both time- and frequency shifts between the input photons are varied. It is shown that the interference of two photons in equivalent frequency comb states results in a two dimensional Hong-Ou-Mandel dip that is narrow in both time and frequency, while the corresponding entangled photon pairs are only sensitive to temporal shifts. Frequency comb states thus represent a unique and different approach towards quantum operations beyond the uncertainty limit.

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arXiv2014

Derivation of quantum mechanics from a single fundamental modification of the relations between physical properties

Recent results obtained in quantum measurements indicate that the fundamental relations between three physical properties of a system can be represented by complex conditional probabilities. Here, it is shown that these relations provide a fully deterministic and universally valid framework on which all of quantum mechanics can be based. Specifically, quantum mechanics can be derived by combining the rules of Bayesian probability theory with only a single additional law that explains the phases of complex probabilities. This law, which I introduce here as the law of quantum ergodicity, is based on the observation that the reality of physical properties cannot be separated from the dynamics by which they emerge in measurement interactions. The complex phases are an expression of this inseparability and represent the dynamical structure of transformations between the different properties. In its quantitative form, the law of quantum ergodicity describes a fundamental relation between the ergodic probabilities obtained by dynamical averaging and the deterministic relations between three properties expressed by the complex conditional probabilities. The complete formalism of quantum mechanics can be derived from this one relation, without any axiomatic mathematical assumptions about state vectors or superpositions. It is therefore possible to explain all quantum phenomena as the consequence of a single fundamental law of physics.

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arXiv2013

Quantum states as complex probabilities: The physics behind direct observations of photon wavefunctions in weak measurements

Weak measurements of photon position can be used to obtain direct experimental evidence of the wavefunction of a photon between generation and ultimate detection. Significantly, these measurement results can also be understood as complex valued conditional probabilities of intermediate photon positions. It is therefore possible to interpret the quantum state as a complex valued probability distribution from which measurement probabilities can be derived according to Bayesian rules. The conventional measurement probabilities derived from squares of the wavefunction then describes the effects of measurement back-action, which originate from a non-classical relation between dynamics and statistics that is characteristic of quantum mechanics. It is pointed out that this relation can be used to derive the complete Hilbert space formalism directly from complex probabilities, without the axiomatic introduction of quantum states or operators.

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arXiv2013

Sequential measurements of non-commuting observables with quantum controlled interactions

The origin of non-classical correlations is difficult to identify since the uncertainty principle requires that information obtained about one observable invariably results in the disturbance of any other non-commuting observable. Here, this problem is addressed by investigating the uncertainty trade-off between measurement errors and disturbance for measurement interactions controlled by the state of a single qubit, where the measurement is described by a quantum coherent superposition of a fully projective measurement and the identity operation. It is shown that the measurement statistics obtained from a quantum controlled measurement of A followed by a projective measurement of B can be explained in terms of a simple combination of resolution and back-action errors acting on an intrinsic joint probability of the non-commuting observables defined by the input state of the system. These intrinsic joint probabilities are consistent with the complex-valued joint probabilities recently observed in weak measurements of quantum systems and provide direct evidence of non-commutativity in the form of imaginary correlations between the non-commuting operators. In quantum controlled measurements, these imaginary correlations can be converted into well-defined contributions to the real measurement statistics, allowing a direct experimental observation of the less intuitive aspects of quantum theory.

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arXiv2013

An investigation of the transfer dynamics of quantum teleportation by weak measurement statistics

We explore the mechanism of quantum teleportation by analyzing the weak measurement statistics post-selected by the result of the Bell measurement for the joint system composed of the input A and the spatially separated output B. It is shown that the weak measurement statistics observed before the Bell measurement includes correlations which relate every physical property in the input A to a corresponding physical property in the output B. The Bell measurement thus identifies the accidental relation between A and B already present in the quantum fluctuations of the input state. Significantly, this relation applies to all physical properties equally, and is completely independent of the input state. Teleportation therefore copies all physical properties of input system A to output system B, irrespective of whether the input state is an eigenstate of the property or not.

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arXiv2013

Quantum effects in the interaction of off-resonant coherent light with a single atom

Well controlled nonlinear interactions between light field pulses and single atoms could be used to implement optical quantum information technologies based on qubits encoded in superpositions of coherent states of light. Here, we investigate the transformation of a coherent light field input at a single atom sufficiently far from resonance to limit the decoherence effects associated with random excitations of the atom. The conditions for suppressing multi-photon scattering to implement arbitrarily large shifts of the coherent light amplitude without decoherence are studied. It is shown that quantum controlled coherent shifts can be achieved by sufficiently long coherent pulses, indicating the possibility of generating superpositions of coherent states with large amplitude differences. The dominant multi-photon scattering effect associated with four wave mixing is also identified, and the spectral and temporal characteristics of the entangled photon pairs generated by this process are discussed.

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arXiv2013

Direct observation of temporal coherence by weak projective measurements of photon arrival time

We show that a weak projective measurement of photon arrival time can be realized by controllable two photon interferences with photons from short-time reference pulses at a polarization beam splitter. The weak value of the projector on the arrival time defined by the reference pulse can be obtained from the coincidence rates conditioned by a specific output measurement. If the weak measurement is followed by a measurement of frequency, the coincidence counts reveal the complete temporal coherence of the single photon wavefunction. Significantly, the weak values of the input state can also be obtained at higher measurement strengths, so that correlations between weak measurements on separate photons can be observed and evaluated without difficulty. The method can thus be used to directly observe the non-classical statistics of time-energy entangled photons.

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arXiv2013

Weak valued statistics as fundamental explanation of quantum physics

Recently, weak measurements have attracted a lot of interest as an experimental method for the investigation of non-classical correlations between observables that cannot be measured jointly. Here, I explain how the complex valued statistics observed in weak measurements relate to the operator algebra of the conventional Hilbert space formalism and show that the algebra of operators originates from more fundamental relations between the physical properties of a quantum system that can be expressed in terms of complex conditional probabilities. In particular, commutation relations can be identified with fundamental imaginary correlations that characterize the relations between physical properties in terms of their transformation dynamics. Non-commutativity thus originates from a definition of relations between physical properties that replaces the assumption of joint reality with a complex-valued probability reflecting the dynamical response of the system to external forces, e.g. in measurement interactions.

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arXiv2013

What the complex joint probabilities observed in weak measurements can tell us about quantum physics

Quantum mechanics does not permit joint measurements of non-commuting observables. However, it is possible to measure the weak value of a projection operator, followed by the precise measurement of a different property. The results can be interpreted as complex joint probabilities of the two non-commuting measurement outcomes. Significantly, it is possible to predict the outcome of completely different measurements by combining the joint probabilities of the initial state with complex conditional probabilities relating the new measurement to the possible combinations of measurement outcomes used in the characterization of the quantum state. We can therefore conclude that the complex conditional probabilities observed in weak measurements describe fundamental state-independent relations between non-commuting properties that represent the most fundamental form of universal laws in quantum physics.

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