SSCU STUDENT SEMINAR
Speaker: Soumi Dey
Topic: Zeno’s paradox and the quantum Zeno effect
Date & Time: Thursday, 17th February 2022 at 4:00 PM through MICROSOFT TEAMS.
Microsoft Teams Link:
Abstract:
The fundamental difference between classical and quantum systems is that a measurement on the classical system does not alter it, however in a quantum system any measurement always collapses the state i.e., the wave function. The Quantum Zeno effect (QZE) is the quantum analog of the famous Zeno paradox that describes what happens if a quantum system measured repeatedly. In 1977, Misra and Sudarshan derived the Zeno’s paradox in quantum theory and showed that in the limit of infinitely frequent measurements a quantum system would remain in it’s initial state [1]. In the following years, this effect was realized experimentally using trapped ions [2]. It also found applications in many areas, such as interaction-free measurement [3] and quantum imaging [4].
In this seminar, I will introduce the notion of QZE with simple example, followed by a detailed discussion of the experimental realization of QZE. I will talk about the applications of QZE in different fields and discuss if it is truly a paradox or not.
References:
- B. Misra and E. C. G. Sudarshan, J. Math. Physics 18, 756 (1977).
2. W. M. Itano, D. J. Heinzen, J. J. Bollinger and D. J. Wineland, Phys. Rev. A41 2295 (1990).
- P. G. Kwiat, A. G. Weinfurter and A. Zeilinger, Scientific American, pp. 72-78, November 1996.
- Y. S. Patil, S. Chakram and M. Vengalattore, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 140402 (2015).