Arrow of time for repeated and continuous quantum measurement

ORAL

Abstract

We will present theoretical results on the statistical arrow of time for a quantum system being monitored by a sequence of measurements. For a continuous qubit measurement example, we demonstrate that time-reversed evolution is always physically possible, provided that the measurement record is also negated. Despite this restoration of dynamical reversibility, a statistical arrow of time emerges, and may be quantified by the log-likelihood difference between forward and backward propagation hypotheses. We then show that such reversibility is a universal feature of non-projective measurements, with forward or backward Janus measurement sequences that are time-reversed inverses of each other.

*John Templeton Foundation, ID 58558, ARO Grants No. W911NF-15-1-0496, No. W911NF-13-1-0402, NSF grant DMR-1506081, and DTSPPT Thailand

Authors

  • Andrew Jordan

    • Univ of Rochester
    • University of Rochester
    • University of Rochester, Center for Coherence and Quantum Optics, Institute for Quantum Studies
  • Justin Dressel

    • Chapman University
  • Areeya Chantasri

    • University of Rochester
  • Kater Murch

    • Washington University, St. Louis
  • Alexander Korotkov

    • University of California, Riverside