Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

205 submissions , 163 unreviewed
5,082 questions , 2,232 unanswered
5,353 answers , 22,789 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
820 active unimported users
More ...

  Measurement of a System by Multiple Quantum Probes

+ 0 like - 0 dislike
1000 views

Assume that variable A, of quantum probe 1, interacts and entangles with variable B, of system S, to be measured. After the interaction, the probe travels to a detector. This detector can measure A, to arbitrary accuracy and, knowing A, we can determine the (reduced) range of possible B values. The momentum of the probe, in the direction of the detector, is not affected by the entanglement. Let's also assume that this is a QND measurement, so after the measurement is completed, for all intents and purposes, B does not change as a result of any back action.

After the above interaction/entanglement is completed, but before probe 1 arrives at the detector, quantum probe 2's variable A entangles with S's variable B. Further, assume that the distance from the system to the detector, along with the momentum expectation values and uncertainties of each probe, is such that either probe could arrive at the detector first. 

If probe 2 is measured at the detector first, then when probe 1 is subsequently measured, will it refine the measurement of B that was made by probe 2, even though probe 1 interacted with S before probe 2 did? I think the answer is yes, after modeling the whole scenario with Schrodinger's equation, but just want to make sure. 

Thanks

asked Mar 3, 2016 in Theoretical Physics by daveinri (0 points) [ revision history ]

Weird things may happen, particularly if $B_{System}$ is unchanged after the QND measurement. Is it not merely a classical context with 2 not perturbative measures ?

@IgaeI  Thank you for your response! I think this is different than perturbation theory, which I understand is for problems that are hard to solve in a straight forward way. The specific cases I looked at, with their interaction Hamiltonians, were pretty easy to solve, as far as I could tell, and my solution was that the probes did not have to be measured in the order in which they interacted with the system in order for the second probe measured to refine the results of the first probe measured. 

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar$ysicsOve$\varnothing$flow
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...