Characterizing a Statistical Arrow of Time in Quantum Measurement Dynamics

  • P. M. Harrington
  • , D. Tan
  • , M. Naghiloo
  • , K. W. Murch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

In both thermodynamics and quantum mechanics, the arrow of time is characterized by the statistical likelihood of physical processes. We characterize this arrow of time for the continuous quantum measurement dynamics of a superconducting qubit. By experimentally tracking individual weak measurement trajectories, we compare the path probabilities of forward and backward-in-time evolution to develop an arrow of time statistic associated with measurement dynamics. We compare the statistics of individual trajectories to ensemble properties showing that the measurement dynamics obeys both detailed and integral fluctuation theorems, thus establishing the consistency between microscopic and macroscopic measurement dynamics.

Original languageEnglish
Article number020502
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume123
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 9 2019

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Characterizing a Statistical Arrow of Time in Quantum Measurement Dynamics'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this