Quantum nondemolition measurements on two-level atomic systems and temporal Bell inequalities

Abstract

The evolution of a two-level system subjected to stimulated transitions which is undergoing a sequence of measurements of the level occupation probability is evaluated. Its time correlation function is compared to the one obtained through the pure Schroedinger evolution. Systems of this kind have been recently proposed for testing the quantum mechanical predictions against those of macrorealistic theories, by means of temporal Bell inequalities. The classical requirement of noninvasivity, needed to define correlation functions in the realistic case, finds a quantum counterpart in the quantum nondemolition condition. The consequences on the observability of quantum mechanically predicted violations to temporal Bell inequalities are drawn and compared to the already dealt case of the rf-SQUID dynamics.