Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/3/b/iii/solution

Continue with the initial quantum state from part (ii), and let . Conditional on every preceding outcome being , the post-measurement state after each ideal projective measurement is again , up to global phase. Part (ii) therefore gives the same conditional probability for each successive outcome. Multiplying these conditional probabilities yields the repeated projective-measurement survival probability
This multiplication uses the quantum state reset at each successful projective measurement; the outcomes need not be assumed statistically independent.
For fixed , put . The Taylor expansion gives the quadratic short-time quantum survival probability. For sufficiently large , taking logarithms gives
Here the remainder uses Big O notation. Exponentiating proves
This is the quantum Zeno effect: increasingly frequent ideal projective measurements inhibit the transition away from the initial quantum state. The departure probability in a short interval is quadratic in its duration, so intervals of duration produce a total leading departure probability proportional to . Without intervening measurements, the return probability at time would be . The result concerns obtaining at every measurement in the ideal limit of instantaneous measurements with unitary time evolution between them.

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