English

Inequivalent ways to apply semi-classical smoothing to a quantum system

Quantum Physics 2025-08-07 v2

Abstract

In this paper, we correct a mistake we made in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122\textbf{122}, 190402 (2019)] and [Phys. Rev. A 103\textbf{103}, 012213 (2021)] regarding the Wigner function of the so-called smoothed Weak-Valued state (SWV state). Here smoothing refers to estimation of properties at time tt using information obtained in measurements both before and after tt. The SWV state is a pseudo-state (Hermitian but not necessarily positive) that gives, by the usual trace formula, the correct value for a weak measurement preformed at time tt, i.e.\textit{i.e.}, its weak value. The Wigner function is a pseudo-probability-distribution (real but not necessarily positive) over phase-space. A smoothed (in this estimation sense) Wigner distribution at time tt can also be defined by applying classical smoothing for probability-distributions to the Wigner functions. The smoothed Wigner distribution (SWD) gives identical means for the canonical phase-space variables as does the SWV state. However, contrary to the assumption in the above references, the Wigner function of the SWV state is not the smoothed Wigner distribution.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.00341,
  title  = {Inequivalent ways to apply semi-classical smoothing to a quantum system},
  author = {Kiarn T. Laverick and Areeya Chantasri and Howard M. Wiseman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.00341},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

6 pages, 2 figures. Comments welcome!

R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:17:42.628Z