David J. Starling: Weak Values in Quantum Optics

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

David J. Starling, University of Rochester

Abstract

The eigenvalue has an important role in the theory of quantum measurement: a strong measurement of some observable always results in a collapse of the wave function and returns the corresponding eigenvalue of the observable. However, there also exist weak measurements which result in a partial collapse of the wave function, where the experimenter gains only partial information about the state. By performing a weak measurement on a pre- and post-selected quantum state, one obtains not an eigenvalue of that observable, but the weak value. The weak value has some very interesting properties, and is useful from a precision measurement point of view. In this talk, I will describe weak values and demonstrate two related quantum optics experiments performed at the University of Rochester.