Measurement Time of Weak Measurements on Large Entangled Systems

Authors

Truong-Son P. Văn, Fulbright University Vietnam
Andrew N. Jordan, Chapman UniversityFollow
David W. Snoke, University of Pittsburgh

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-20-2025

Abstract

It is well established that starting only with strong, projective quantum measurements, experiments can be designed to allow weak measurements, which lead to a random walk between the possible final measurement outcomes. However, one can ask the reverse question: starting with only weak measurements, can all the results of standard strong measurements be recovered? Prior work has shown that some results can be, such as the Born rule for the probability of measurement outcomes as a function of wave intensity. In this paper, we show that another crucial result can be reproduced by purely weak measurements, namely, the collapse of a many-body, nonlocally entangled wave function on a timescale comparable to the characteristic time of a single, local measurement. For an entangled state of a single excitation among 𝑁 qubits, we find the collapse time scales as a double logarithm of 𝑁. This result affirms the self-consistency of the hypothesis that spontaneous weak measurements lie at the base of all physical measurements, independent of human observers.

Comments

This article was originally published in Physical Review A, volume 111, in 2025. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.111.032217

Recommended Citation

T.-S. P. Văn, A. N. Jordan, and D. W. Snoke, Measurement time of weak measurements on large entangled systems. Phys. Rev. A 111, 032217 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.111.032217

Peer Reviewed

1

Copyright

American Physical Society