Robust Macroscopic Quantum Measurements in the presence of limited control and knowledge

Abstract

Quantum measurements have intrinsic properties which seem incompatible with our everyday-life macroscopic measurements. Macroscopic Quantum Measurement (MQM) is a concept that aims at bridging the gap between well understood microscopic quantum measurements and macroscopic classical measurements. In this paper, we focus on the task of the polarization direction estimation of a system of $N$ spins $1/2$ particles and investigate the model some of us proposed in Barnea et al., 2017. This model is based on a von Neumann pointer measurement, where each spin component of the system is coupled to one of the three spatial components direction of a pointer. It shows traits of a classical measurement for an intermediate coupling strength. We investigate relaxations of the assumptions on the initial knowledge about the state and on the control over the MQM. We show that the model is robust with regard to these relaxations. It performs well for thermal states and a lack of knowledge about the size of the system. Furthermore, a lack of control on the MQM can be compensated by repeated "ultra-weak" measurements.

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