English

Beyond Zeno: Approaching Infinite Temperature upon Repeated Measurements

Quantum Physics 2012-02-16 v2 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

The influence of repeated projective measurements on the dynamics of the state of a quantum system is studied in dependence of the time lag τ\tau between successive measurements. In the limit of infinitely many measurements of the occupancy of a single state the total system approaches a uniform state. The asymptotic approach to this state is exponential in the case of finite Hilbert space dimension. The rate characterizing this approach undergoes a sharp transition from a monotonically increasing to an erratically varying function of the time between subsequent measurements.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1107.5413,
  title  = {Beyond Zeno: Approaching Infinite Temperature upon Repeated Measurements},
  author = {Juyeon Yi and Peter Talkner and Gert-Ludwig Ingold},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1107.5413},
  year   = {2012}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T18:42:49.028Z