Observation of non-classical correlations in sequential measurements of photon polarization

Abstract

A sequential measurement of two non-commuting quantum observables results in a joint probability distribution for all output combinations that can be explained in terms of an initial joint quasi-probability of the non-commuting observables, modified by the resolution errors and back-action of the initial measurement. Here, we show that the error statistics of a sequential measurement of photon polarization performed at different measurement strengths can be described consistently by an imaginary correlation between the statistics of resolution and back-action. The experimental setup was designed to realize variable strength measurements with well-controlled imaginary correlation between the statistical errors caused by the initial measurement of diagonal polarizations, followed by a precise measurement of the horizontal/vertical polarization. We perform the experimental characterization of an elliptically polarized input state and show that the same complex joint probability distribution is obtained at any measurement strength.

20 pages, 7 figures, update introduction, add comment after Eq.(12)

References in corpus (5)

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• Anomalous Weak Values Are Proofs of Contextuality
• Direct observation of Hardy's paradox by joint weak measurement with an entangled photon pair
• Quantum theory of successive projective measurements
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