Optical Telecom Networks as Weak Quantum Measurements with Postselection
Optical Telecom Networks as Weak Quantum Measurements with Postselection
We show that weak measurements with post-selection, proposed in the context of the quantum theory of measurement, naturally appear in the everyday physics of fiber optics telecom networks through polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) and polarization-dependent losses (PDL). Specifically, the PMD leads to a time-resolved discrimination of polarization; the post-selection is done …