No Arabic abstract
We put forth a unifying formalism for the description of the thermodynamics of continuously monitored systems, where measurements are only performed on the environment connected to a system. We show, in particular, that the conditional and unconditional entropy production, which quantify the degree of irreversibility of the open systems dynamics, are related to each other by the Holevo quantity. This, in turn, can be further split into an information gain rate and loss rate, which provide conditions for the existence of informational steady-states (ISSs), i.e. stationary states of a conditional dynamics that are maintained owing to the unbroken acquisition of information. We illustrate the applicability of our framework through several examples.
We discuss the problem of estimating a frequency via N-qubit probes undergoing independent dephasing channels that can be continuously monitored via homodyne or photo-detection. We derive the corresponding analytical solutions for the conditional states, for generic initial states and for arbitrary efficiency of the continuous monitoring. For the detection strategies considered, we show that: i) in the case of perfect continuous detection, the quantum Fisher information (QFI) of the conditional states is equal to the one obtained in the noiseless dynamics; ii) for smaller detection efficiencies, the QFI of the conditional state is equal to the QFI of a state undergoing the (unconditional) dephasing dynamics, but with an effectively reduced noise parameter.
Gaussian states of quantum oscillators are fully characterized by the mean values and the covariance matrix of their quadrature observables. We consider the dynamics of a system of oscillators subject to interactions, damping, and continuous probing which maintain their Gaussian state property. Such dynamics is found in many physical systems that can therefore be efficiently described by the ensuing effective representation of the density matrix $rho(t)$. Our probabilistic knowledge about the outcome of measurements on a quantum system at time $t$ is not only governed by $rho(t)$ conditioned on the evolution and measurement outcomes obtained until time $t$, but is also modified by any information acquired after $t$. It was shown in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 160401 (2013)] that this information is represented by a supplementary matrix, $E(t)$. We show here that the restriction of the dynamics of $rho(t)$ to Gaussian states implies that the matrix $E(t)$ is also fully characterized by a vector of mean values and a covariance matrix. We derive the dynamical equations for these quantities and we illustrate their use in the retrodiction of measurements on Gaussian systems.
We examine, in correlated mixed states of qudit-qubit systems, the set of all conditional qubit states that can be reached after local measurements at the qudit based on rank-1 projectors. While for a similar measurement at the qubit, the conditional post-measurement qudit states lie on the surface of an ellipsoid, for a measurement at the qudit we show that the set of post-measurement qubit states can form more complex solid regions. In particular, we show the emergence, for some classes of mixed states, of sets which are the convex hull of solid ellipsoids and which may lead to cone-like and triangle-like shapes in limit cases. We also analyze the associated measurement dependent conditional entropy, providing a full analytic determination of its minimum and of the minimizing local measurement at the qudit for the previous states. Separable rank-2 mixtures are also discussed.
We predict that continuously monitored quantum dynamics can be chaotic. The optimal paths between past and future boundary conditions can diverge exponentially in time when there is time-dependent evolution and continuous weak monitoring. Optimal paths are defined by extremizing the global probability density to move between two boundary conditions. We investigate the onset of chaos in pure-state qubit systems with optimal paths generated by a periodic Hamiltonian. Specifically, chaotic quantum dynamics are demonstrated in a scheme where two non-commuting observables of a qubit are continuously monitored, and one measurement strength is periodically modulated. The optimal quantum paths in this example bear similarities to the trajectories of the kicked rotor, or standard map, which is a paradigmatic example of classical chaos. We emphasize connections with the concept of resonance between integrable optimal paths and weak periodic perturbations, as well as our previous work on multipaths, and connect the optimal path chaos to instabilities in the underlying quantum trajectories.
The fundamental assumption of statistical mechanics is that the system is equally likely in any of the accessible microstates. Based on this assumption, the Boltzmann distribution is derived and the full theory of statistical thermodynamics can be built. In this paper, we show that the Boltzmann distribution in general can not describe the steady state of open system. Based on the effective Hamiltonian approach, we calculate the specific heat, the free energy and the entropy for an open system in steady states. Examples are illustrated and discussed.