Revisiting weak measurement in light of thermodynamics

Abstract

We investigate a weak measurement described by a von Neumann type interaction $\hat{A}\otimes {\hat{p}}^2$, where $\hat{A}$ is a system observable and ${\hat{p}}^2$ is a measurement pointer observable. We consider the weak measurement in terms of thermodynamics by adopting a mixed Gaussian state as a quantum state of the measurement pointer. We show that Maxwell's demon appears as a measure who carries out post-selections. It is found that, even if the demon only knows the weak value, a difference in the von Neumann entropy between the initial and final system can be the QC mutual information contents, which is the maximum amount of obtainable information by a measurement. Besides, our study indicates that a temperature of the system described by this interaction is amplified by weak value amplification. In addition, we show that this demon can be realized in an atomic system.

arXiv comment8 pages

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