Measuring irreversible dynamics of a quantum harmonic oscillator
Quantum Physics
2010-03-26 v1
Abstract
We show that the unitary evolution of a harmonic oscillator coupled to a two-level system can be undone by a suitable manipulation of the two-level system -- more specifically: by a quasi-instantaneous phase change. This enables us to isolate the dissipative evolution to which the oscillator may be exposed in addition. With this method we study the decoherence of a photon mode in cavity QED, and that of the quantized harmonic motion of trapped ions. We comment on the relation to spin echoes and multi-path interferometry.
Cite
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0108082,
title = {Measuring irreversible dynamics of a quantum harmonic oscillator},
author = {Giovanna Morigi and Enrique Solano and Berthold-Georg Englert and Herbert Walther},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0108082},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
4 pages, 2 figures; submitted to Physical Review A as a Rapid Communication