Experimental investigation of direct non-Hermitian measurement and uncertainty relation towards high-dimensional quantum domain

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum simulation method for direct non-Hermitian measurements and experimentally investigates the associated uncertainty relations in high-dimensional quantum systems, advancing understanding of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics.

Contribution

It introduces a non-Hermitian projective protocol and demonstrates experimental realization in a quantum optical setup, enabling direct measurement of non-Hermitian observables.

Findings

Successful experimental implementation of 3D non-Hermitian measurement

Verification of non-Hermitian uncertainty relations with different metrics

State-independent non-Hermitian quantum measurement method

Abstract

Non-Hermitian dynamics in quantum systems have unveiled novel phenomena, yet the implementation of valid non-Hermitian quantum measurement remains a challenge, because a universal quantum projective mechanism on the complete but skewed non-Hermitian eigenstates is not explicit in experiment. This limitation hinders the direct acquisition of non-Hermitian observable statistics (e.g., non-Hermitian population dynamics), also constrains investigations of non-Hermitian quantum measurement properties such as uncertainty relation. Here, we address these challenges by presenting a non-Hermitian projective protocol and investigating the non-Hermitian uncertainty relation. We derive the uncertainty relation for pseudo-Hermitian (PH) observables that is generalized beyond the Hermitian ones. We then investigate the projective properties of general quantum states onto complete non-Hermitian eigenvectors, and present a quantum simulating method to apply the valid non-Hermitian projective measurement on a direct-sum dilated space. Subsequently, we experimentally construct a quantum simulator in the quantum optical circuit and realize the 3-dimensional non-Hermitian quantum measurement on the single-photon qutrit. Employing this platform, we explore the uncertainty relation experimentally with different PH metrics. Our non-Hermitian quantum measurement method is state-independent and outputs directly the non-Hermitian quantum projective statistics, paving the way for studies of extensive non-Hermitian observable in quantum domain.