Physics Program Presents
Watching the Wave Function Collapse
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Hegeman 107
Kater Murch
Washington University, St. Louis
Recent advances in superconducting quantum bits and quantum limited amplifiers have enabled a number of experiments that probe fundamental questions in quantum optics, open quantum systems, and continuous measurement. I will describe recent experiments where we use weak, continuous measurement to monitor the evolution of a superconducting qubit as it evolves in competition between driven evolution and the random evolution associated with measurement. By tracking individual quantum trajectories that evolve between an arbitrary choice of initial and final states we can deduce the most probable path through quantum state space. These results reveal the rich interplay between measurement dynamics, typically associated with wave function collapse, and unitary evolution of the quantum state as described by the Schrödinger equation. Washington University, St. Louis
For more information, call 845-758-7302, or e-mail [email protected].
Location: Hegeman 107