September 4, 2022
We formulate a model of a quantum particle continuously monitored by detectors measuring simultaneously its position and momentum. We implement the postulate of wavefunction collapse by assuming that upon detection the particle is found in one of the meters' states chosen as a discrete subset of coherent states. The dynamics, as observed by the meters, is thus a random sequence of jumps between coherent states. We generate such trajectories using the Monte Carlo Wavefunction ...
July 11, 1998
The effect of entangling evolution induced by frequently repeated quantum measurement is presented. The interesting possibility of conditional freezing the system in maximally entangled state out of Zeno effect regime is also revealed. The illustration of the phenomena in terms of dynamical version of ``interaction free'' measurement is presented. Some general conclusions are provided.
September 5, 2000
The evolution of a quantum system under observation becomes retarded or even impeded. We review this ``quantum Zeno effect'' in the light of the criticism that has been raised upon a previous attempt to demonstrate it, of later reexaminations of both the projection postulate and the significance of the observations, and of the results of a recent experiment on an individual cold atom. Here, the micro-state of the quantum system gets unveiled with the observation, and the effe...
July 8, 2010
We investigate the discrete-time quantum walk evolution under the influence of the periodic measurements in position subspace. The undisturbed survival probability of the particle at the position subspace, $P(0, t)$ is compared with the survival probability after frequent ($n$) measurements at interval $\tau = t/n$, $P(0, \tau)^n$. We show that $P(0, \tau)^n > P(0, t)$ leading to the quantum Zeno effect in the position subspace when a parameter $\theta$ in the quantum coin op...
October 14, 2014
The quantum Zeno effect is usually thought to require infinitely frequent and perfect projective measurements to freeze the dynamics of quantum states. We show that perfect freezing of quantum states can also be achieved by more realistic non-projective measurements performed at a finite frequency.
March 7, 2002
I describe the early (1974--75) work I did on what is now called the Zeno problem in quantum mechanics. Then I propose a new formulation which may obviate a vexing problem of operator limits and which also may be more measurement-compatible.
June 6, 2001
The time evolution of an unstable quantum mechanical system coupled with an external measuring agent is investigated. According to the features of the interaction Hamiltonian, a quantum Zeno effect (hindered decay) or an inverse quantum Zeno effect (accelerated decay) can take place, depending on the response time of the apparatus. The transition between the two regimes is analyzed for both pulsed and continuous measurements.
December 5, 2007
Repeated measurements of a quantum particle to check its presence in a region of space was proposed long ago [G. R. Allcock, Ann. Phys. {\bf 53}, 286 (1969)] as a natural way to determine the distribution of times of arrival at the orthogonal subspace, but the method was discarded because of the quantum Zeno effect: in the limit of very frequent measurements the wave function is reflected and remains in the original subspace. We show that by normalizing the small bits of arri...
May 2, 2001
The evolution of a quantum system is supposed to be impeded by measurement of an involved observable. This effect has been proven indistinguishable from the effect of dephasing the system's wave function, except in an individual quantum system. The coherent dynamics, on an optical E2 line, of a single trapped ion driven by light of negligible phase drift has been alternated with interrogations of the internal ion state. Retardation of the ion's nutation, equivalent to the qua...
June 20, 2000
If a measurement process is regarded as an irreversible process, then by Second law of thermodynamics the entropy should increase after any measurement process. By the same spirit a quantum system undergoing repeated measurement should show strong irreversibility leading to entropy production. On the contrary we show that in quantum Zeno effect setting the entropy of a quantum system decreases and goes to zero after a large number of measurements. We discuss the entropy chang...