arXiv subjects

S. Shrapnel

Publications and source records attributed to S. Shrapnel.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

Entropy production and fluctuation theorems in a continuously monitored optical cavity at zero temperature

Fluctuation theorems allow one to make generalised statements about the behaviour of thermodynamic quantities in systems that are driven far from thermal equilibrium. In this article we use Crooks' fluctuation theorem to understand the entropy production of a continuously measured, zero-temperature quantum system; namely an optical cavity measured via homodyne detection. At zero temperature, if one uses the classical definition of inverse temperature $\beta$, then the entropy production becomes divergent. Our analysis shows that the entropy production can be well defined at zero temperature by considering the entropy produced in the measurement record leading to an effective inverse temperature $\beta_{\rm eff}$ which does not diverge. We link this result to the Cram\'er-Rao inequality and show that the product of the Fisher information of the work distribution with the entropy production is bounded below by half of the square of the effective inverse temperature $\beta_{\rm eff}$. This inequality indicates that there is a minimal amount of entropy production that is paid to acquire information about the work done to a quantum system driven far from equilibrium.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Experimental characterisation of a non-Markovian quantum process

Every quantum system is coupled to an environment. Such system-environment interaction leads to temporal correlation between quantum operations at different times, resulting in non-Markovian noise. In principle, a full characterisation of non-Markovian noise requires tomography of a multi-time processes matrix, which is both computationally and experimentally demanding. In this paper, we propose a more efficient solution. We employ machine learning models to estimate the amount of non-Markovianity, as quantified by an information-theoretic measure, with tomographically incomplete measurement. We test our model on a quantum optical experiment, and we are able to predict the non-Markovianity measure with $90\%$ accuracy. Our experiment paves the way for efficient detection of non-Markovian noise appearing in large scale quantum computers.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Physical grounds for causal perspectivalism

We ground the asymmetry of causal relations in the internal physical states of a special kind of open and irreversible physical system, a causal agent. A causal agent is an autonomous physical system, maintained in a steady state, far from thermal equilibrium, with special subsystems: sensors, actuators, and learning machines. Using feedback, the learning machine, driven purely by thermodynamic constraints, changes its internal states to learn probabilistic functional relations inherent in correlations between sensor and actuator records. We argue that these functional relations just are causal relations learned by the agent, and so such causal relations are simply relations between the internal physical states of a causal agent. We show that learning is driven by a thermodynamic principle: the error rate is minimised when the dissipated power is minimised. While the internal states of a causal agent are necessarily stochastic, the learned causal relations are shared by all machines with the same hardware embedded in the same environment. We argue that this dependence of causal relations on such `hardware' is a novel demonstration of causal perspectivalism.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2019

Hiding Ignorance Using High Dimensions

The absence of information -- entirely or partly -- is called ignorance. Naturally, one might ask if some ignorance of a whole system will imply some ignorance of its parts. Our classical intuition tells us yes, however quantum theory tells us no: it is possible to encode information in a quantum system so that despite some ignorance of the whole, it is impossible to identify the unknown part arXiv:1011.6448. Experimentally verifying this counter-intuitive fact requires controlling and measuring quantum systems of high dimension $(d {>} 9)$. We provide this experimental evidence using the transverse spatial modes of light, a powerful resource for testing high dimensional quantum phenomenon.

quant-ph↗