In recent years, there have been significant advancements in the development of digital quantum computers and simulators. These emerging physical systems are opening up unprecedented possibilities for controlling and measuring a variety of quantum dynamics. As a result, some fundamental questions in many-body physics that would have previously been considered speculative and outside the realm of experimental exploration can now be examined in laboratory settings.
Researchers at Stanford University have recently carried out a study exploring the role of quantum measurements in many-body dynamics. In their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, they specifically presented a protocol that can be used to realize dynamics that include quantum measurements in quantum computers and quantum simulators, while avoiding a procedural step known as postselection.
"Measurements have a special place in quantum physics: They cause the system to abruptly 'collapse' onto one of several possible measurement outcomes, chosen at random," Matteo Ippoliti and Vedika Khemani, the two researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org. "For instance, think of Schrodinger's cat in a 'superposition' of alive and dead in a box—as soon as the box is opened, the cat's state collapses to either alive or dead. In contrast, quantum systems that are 'left alone' evolve in a deterministic way, also known as 'unitary' dynamics."
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