Covariant Quantum Measurements and Stochastic Dynamics on Representation Space

Abstract:We develop a framework for group-covariant quantum measurements in which measurement-induced transitions between irreducible representation sectors are described by a stochastic process on representation space. Starting from the Peter-Weyl decomposition, we construct covariant measurement operators from irreducible tensor operators and show that, for symmetry-invariant states, the measurement channel reduces to a Markov process on the representation graph. We further show that analyticity of the measurement operator constrains the detector spectrum through Sugiura's theorem, motivating a class of exponentially decaying detector models. Specializing to SU(2), we obtain the transition kernel in closed form, establish reversibility and the associated invariant measure, and derive a continuum Fokker-Planck description of the induced dynamics. Analytical predictions for the drift and diffusion coefficients are found to agree with numerical simulations. Our results provide a stochastic description of repeated covariant quantum measurements on representation space.

arXiv:2607.25101 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2607.25101v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.25101 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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