Quantum Processes and Measurement: Theory and Experiment

This accessible and self-contained text presents the essential theoretical techniques developed to describe quantum processes, alongside a detailed review of the devices and experimental methods required in quantum measurement. Ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students seeking to extend their knowledge of the physics underlying quantum technologies, the book develops a thorough understanding of quantum measurement theory, quantum processes and the evolution of quantum states. A wide range of basic quantum systems are discussed, including atoms, ions, photons, and more complex macroscopic quantum devices such as opto-mechanical systems and superconducting circuits. Quantum phenomena are also covered in detail, from entanglement and quantum jumps, to quantum fluctuations in optical systems. Numerous problems at the end of each chapter problems enable the reader to consolidate key theoretical concepts and to develop their understanding of the most widely-used experimental techniques.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1. Experiment: detecting single quantum objects; 2. Description of quantum systems in terms of density matrix; 3. Experiment: quantum processes; 4. Evolution; 5. Measurement; 6. Experiment: bipartite systems; 7. Entanglement; 8. Experiment: continuous quantum fluctuations; 9. Continuous variable systems; 10. Experiment: parameter estimation; 11. Theory: parameter estimation; Appendix A. Basic postulates of quantum mechanics; Appendix B. Generalized postulates of quantum mechanics; Appendix C. Description of composite systems; Appendix D. Qubits; Appendix E. Quantum particle; Appendix F. Quantum electromagnetic field; Appendix G. Interaction between light and atoms; Appendix H. Interaction between light beams and linear optical media; Appendix I. Interaction between light beams and nonlinear optical media; Appendix J. Optomechanics; Appendix K. Basics of circuit quantum electrodynamics; Bibliography; Index.

About the Author :
Claude Fabre is Emeritus Professor in Physics at Sorbonne University at the Kastler–Brossel Laboratory in Paris, and has made pioneering contributions within the field of quantum optics, especially concerning the manipulation of quantum fluctuations and correlations in light and quantum parameter estimation. He is Fellow of the Optical Society of America and an honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France. He was awarded the Grand Prix Léon Brillouin. He co-authored the successful textbook Introduction to Quantum Optics (2010) with Gilbert Grynberg and Alain Aspect. Rodrigo G. Cortiñas is a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University and a Fellow of the Yale Quantum Institute. His research is currently focused on experimental quantum error correction in superconducting circuits. He obtained his PhD from the École Normale Supérieure de Paris (ENS) for experimental work on Rydberg atomic physics for quantum simulation. As a teaching assistant, he has led several exercise classes at the graduate level at the ENS and at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, from where he graduated.

Review :
'[The book begins] with recent experiments that involve the detection of single quantum entities, photons, particles, and energy levels of an atom. Subsequent chapters alternate between theory (especially as required to understand recent experiments - entanglement and all) and those experiments. The experiments end with SQUIDs and the theory with quantum non-demolition. The last 100 pages include 11 appendices, from qubits to quantum mechanics of electrical circuits … Each chapter and each appendix ends with exercises, some requiring serious derivations; others inviting the reader to attempt an order-of-magnitude estimate of some quantity she had probably never thought of before.' Virginia Trimble, The Observatory