Yu-Xiang Zhang

Coupling-deformed pointer observables and weak values

While the novel applications of weak values have recently attracted wide attention, weak measurement, the usual way to extract weak values, suffers from risky approximations and severe quantum noises. In this paper, we show that the weak-value information can be obtained exactly in strong measurement with postselections, via measuring the coupling-deformed pointer observables, i.e., the observables selected according to the coupling strength. With this approach, we keep all the advantages claimed by weak-measurement schemes and at the same time solve some widely criticized problems thereof, such as the questionable universality, systematical bias, and drastic inefficiency.

Direct state reconstruction with coupling-deformed pointer observables

Direct state tomography (DST) using weak measurements has received wide attention. Based on the concept of coupling-deformed pointer observables presented by Zhang et al. [Y.-X. Zhang, S. Wu, and Z.-B. Chen, Phys. Rev. A 93, 032128 (2016)], a modified direct state tomography (MDST) is proposed, examined, and compared with other typical state tomography schemes. MDST has exact validity for measurements of any strength. We identify the strength needed to attain the highest efficiency level of MDST by using statistical theory. MDST is much more efficient than DST in the sense that far fewer samples are needed to reach DSTs level of reconstruction accuracy. Moreover, MDST has no inherent bias when compared to DST.

Quantum uncertainty switches on or off the error-disturbance tradeoff

The uncertainty principle is often interpreted by the tradeoff between the error of a measurement and the consequential disturbance to the followed ones, which originated long ago from Heisenberg himself but now falls into reexamination and even heated debate. Here we show that the tradeoff is switched on or off by the quantum uncertainties of two involved non-commuting observables: if one is more certain than the other, there is no tradeoff; otherwise, they do have tradeoff and the Jensen-Shannon divergence gives it a good characterization.The indeterminacy of quantum mechanics was originally presented by Heisenberg through the tradeoff between the measuring error of the observable A and the consequential disturbance to the value of another observable B. This tradeoff now has become a popular interpretation of the uncertainty principle. However, the historic idea has never been exactly formulated previously and is recently called into question. A theory built upon operational and state-relevant definitions of error and disturbance is called for to rigorously reexamine the relationship. Here by putting forward such natural definitions, we demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally that there is no tradeoff if the outcome of measuring B is more uncertain than that of A. Otherwise, the tradeoff will be switched on and well characterized by the Jensen-Shannon divergence. Our results reveal the hidden effect of the uncertain nature possessed by the measured state, and conclude that the state-relevant relation between error and disturbance is not almosteverywhere a tradeoff as people usually believe.

Ground-state cooling of a dispersively coupled optomechanical system in the unresolved sideband regime via a dissipatively coupled oscillator

In the optomechanical cooling of a dispersively coupled oscillator, it is only possible to reach the oscillator ground state in the resolved sideband regime, where the cavity-mode line width is smaller than the resonant frequency of the mechanical oscillator being cooled. In this paper, we show that the dispersively coupled system can be cooled to the ground state in the unresolved sideband regime using an ancillary oscillator, which is coupled to the same optical mode via dissipative interaction. The ancillary oscillator has a resonant frequency close to that of the target oscillator; thus, the ancillary oscillator is also in the unresolved sideband regime. We require only a single blue-detuned laser mode to drive the cavity.

Information gain versus coupling strength in quantum measurements

We investigate the relationship between the information gain and the interaction strength between the quantum system and the measuring device. A strategy is proposed to calculate the information gain of the measuring device as the coupling strength is a variable. For qubit systems, we prove that the information gain increases monotonically with the coupling strength. It is obtained that the information gain of the projective measurement along the x-direction reduces with the increasing of the measurement strength along the z-direction, and a complementarity of information gain in the measurements along those two directions is presented.