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Quantum Coherence and Measurement.

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44 views3 pages

Quantum Coherence and Measurement.

Uploaded by

Hemanth Sai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Quantum coherence

Quantum coherence refers to the phenomenon where quantum systems, like atoms or
particles, become entangled and exhibit a synchronized behaviour. Quantum coherence
allows particles to exist in multiple states simultaneously.
Coherence refers to the ability of a quantum system to maintain a well-defined phase
relationship between different states in a superposition. It's a fundamental property that
allows qubits to exist in a linear combination of basis states, enabling the parallelism and
interference that are central to quantum computing. Coherence is essential for performing
quantum operations, but it's fragile and can be easily lost through interactions with the
environment.

Coherence Length is the time a qubit can survive its quantum properties. In quantum
computing, maintaining coherence is crucial for the functioning of quantum bits or qubits. If
coherence is lost too quickly, the quantum information becomes unreliable.

Quantum Decoherence:
The decoherence theory is reverting a quantum system back to classical through interactions
with the environment which decay and eliminate quantum behaviour of particles.
Due to decoherence qubits are extremely fragile and their ability to stay in superposition and
or entangle is severely jeopardized. Radiation, light, sound, vibrations, heat, magnetic fields
or even the act of measuring a qubit are all examples of decoherence.
Decoherence leads to errors in quantum computational systems where information is lost.
However a larger system of qubits starts to entangle with its environment which causes
decoherence to affect the superposition state and disrupt quantum information processing.
 Decoherence is the interactions a qubit has with its environment which causes
disturbances and collapse superposition
 Decoherence leads to errors in quantum information but there must be loose
interactions of a qubit and its environment for us to read processed data
 This introduces coherence length which is the amount of time a qubit stays in
superposition long enough to do computations
 Quantum error correction is used to detect and correct corrupted quantum information
to help prolong coherence length and other faults in computation

Measurement:
When it comes to the measurement of physical observables, quantum mechanics can tell us
what measurement results are possible and what the probability is of obtaining each
measurement result. It is also important to focus on what the state of the system is after a
measurement is made.
Measurement has a profound impact on a quantum mechanical system—altering its state in
an irreversible way.

When a measurement is made, the qubit will be forced into the state |ψ → |0> or |ψ → |1>.
After measurement the original state is lost. It isn’t possible to make a measurement and
determine what α and β are
The measurement of a quantum system involves some type of interaction or coupling of that
system with a measuring device. That device can be thought of as part of the larger
environment which the quantum system is a part of. Frequently the measuring apparatus or
larger environment is known as the ancilla. A system coupled to an environment is known as
an open system.

The result of a measurement is a projection and the state is projected onto the basis state | i ⟩

To summarize, if a measurement is made on the system | Ψ ⟩, the result | i ⟩ is obtained with


with probability |αi|2 ---the same properties are true of this more general system.

probability |αi|2. Assuming that | i ⟩ results from the measurement, the state of the system has
been projected into the state | i ⟩. Therefore, the state of the system immediately after the
measurement is | i ⟩.

For each of the following qubits, if a measurement is made, what is the probability that we
find
the qubit in state |0>? What is the probability that we find the qubit in the state |1>?

Solution
To find the probability that each qubit is found in the state |0> or the state |1>, we compute
the
modulus squared of the appropriate coefficient.

(a) In this case the probability of finding |ψ> in state |0>

is

the probability of finding |ψ> in state |1>


b) The next state has coefficients that are complex numbers. Remember we need to use the
complex conjugate when calculating the modulus squared. We find that the probability
of the system being in state |0> is
the probability of finding |ϕ> in state |0>

the probability of finding |ϕ> in state |1> is

Prove that
Consider the matrix representations of these operations and with little algebra, things will become
obvious.

, ,

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