Quantum Zeno Effect with unitary description of measurements

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/jw827d08b

Abstract

The Quantum Zeno Effect is the phenomenon where continuous measurements freeze the evolution of a quantum system. We explore this effect using unitary descriptions of measurements. By describing the measurements with CNOT gates, we can produce the Quantum Zeno Effect. Our results show that we need an infinite number of ancillary qubits, thus infinite spaces are required. We also look into the case where we only have a finite number of ancillary qubits and reuse each of the ancillary qubits. In this case, our results show that reusing the ancillary qubits more than once has the same impact as reusing them once. Therefore, to produce the Quantum Zeno Effect, we need an infinite number of ancillary qubits that have not been previously used.

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