High-efficiency quantum interrogation measurements via the quantum Zeno effect

1999/09/27 by Paul G. Kwiat, P. G. Kwiat, A. G. White +10 · 2 voices · 22 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #quant-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.83.4725

published as Physical Review Letters 83, no. 23, pp. 4725-4728 (1999). · 4 pages, 3 postscript figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett; submitted June 11, 1999

arxiv created 1999/09/27 · openalex publication_date 1999/12/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The phenomenon of quantum interrogation allows one to optically detect the presence of an absorbing object, without the measuring light interacting with it. In an application of the quantum Zeno effect, the object inhibits the otherwise coherent evolution of the light, such that the probability that an interrogating photon is absorbed can in principle be arbitrarily small. We have implemented this technique, demonstrating efficiencies exceeding the 50% theoretical-maximum of the original ``interaction-free'' measurement proposal. We have also predicted and experimentally verified a previously unsuspected dependence on loss; efficiencies of up to 73% were observed and the feasibility of efficiencies up to 85% was demonstrated.

Citations

• Interaction-Free Measurement
• Quantum mechanical interaction-free measurements

Cited by

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• High-efficiency Weak-trace-free Counterfactual Communication via Quantum Zeno Effect
• New insights of quantum Zeno phenomenon: an indirect correlation effect among subsystems
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• Interaction-free measurement of multiple objects using a universal integrated photonic processor
• Observation of Quantum Zeno blockade on Chip
• A unified picture for quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects -- a review
• A quantum computing scheme for the Hamiltonian path problem
• Counterfactual quantum computation through quantum interrogation
• Atomic “bomb testing”: the Elitzur–Vaidman experiment violates the Leggett–Garg inequality
• General implementation of all possible positive-operator-value measurements of single-photon polarization states
• Determining the quantum expectation value by measuring a single photon
• A Transactional Analysis of Interaction-Free Measurements
• Are interaction-free measurements interaction free?
• The quantum future of microscopy: Wave function engineering of electrons, ions, and nuclei
• Quantum theory and determinism
• Interaction-Free Measurements with Superconducting Qubits
• On the Interpretative Essence of the Term “Interaction-Free Measurement”: The Role of Entanglement
• Electronic implementations of interaction-free measurements
• Non-Hermitian dynamics in the quantum Zeno limit
• Interaction-free measurement with an imperfect absorber
• Freezing Coherent Field Growth in a Cavity by the Quantum Zeno Effect
• Detection of a quantum particle on a lattice under repeated projective measurements

Discussions

• In classical physics the evolution of a measurable quantity, such as the $x$ position of a particle is described by a function $x(t)$ such that if you measure $x$ at time $t$ you get the result $x(t)$ [stackexchange, 5 points]
• Is it possible to test whether a certain qubit ${\mid}\psi\rangle$ equals, say, ${\mid}\psi_0\rangle = a{\mid}0\rangle + b{\mid}1\rangle$ ; i.e., can one get a boolean out of ${\mid}\psi\rangle \stack [stackexchange, 5 points]

Related

• Observation of Quantum Zeno blockade on Chip
• Quantum Interrogation with particles
• Entangling photons via the quantum Zeno effect
• High-efficiency Weak-trace-free Counterfactual Communication via Quantum Zeno Effect
• A unified picture for quantum Zeno and anti-Zeno effects -- a review