Thermal aliases in quantum noise: sampling clocks and pulse widths
Abstract
Can collective quantum-noise measurements distinguish different mode temperatures from one common temperature when the coupling spectrum is unknown? For stationary Gaussian oscillator environments, we derive a sharp bandwidth threshold for an exact thermal alias on the integer-time sampling lattice. The threshold depends on temperature order through the quantum response. For frequencies within the first alias period, fixing sufficient integer-time correlations makes one additional fractional-time fluctuation observation enough to exclude every common-temperature fit. A calibrated second pulse width provides another route through the same collective port: both widths must probe one spectrum and retain their measured variance scales. For a specified two-mode example, continuous-frequency certificates cover all common temperatures and uncertainty in a shared pulse ramp. A binary-readout protocol combines randomly interleaved matched references with collective-variance and coherence checks to handle Gaussian oscillator loss and predictable readout drift. The selected fractional-clock and two-width designs require approximately 3.8×107 and 1.6×108 outcomes for at most 5\% type-I error and at least 95\% power on the stated alternative class. These theoretical and numerical acquisition guarantees assume independently validated preparation, spectral support and control specifications; validation costs are additional. The result identifies which new observation makes thermal-model testing informative when mode-resolved access is unavailable.
Related
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BibTeX
@misc{wang2026thermal,
title = {{Thermal aliases in quantum noise: sampling clocks and pulse widths}},
author = {Zi-Xuan Wang and Xiu-Hao Deng},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.16889},
eprint = {2610.16889},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16889},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Thermal aliases in quantum noise: sampling clocks and pulse widths
AU - Zi-Xuan Wang
AU - Xiu-Hao Deng
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.16889
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.16889
AB - Can collective quantum-noise measurements distinguish different mode temperatures from one common temperature when the coupling spectrum is unknown? For stationary Gaussian oscillator environments, we derive a sharp bandwidth threshold for an exact thermal alias on the integer-time sampling lattice. The threshold depends on temperature order through the quantum response. For frequencies within the first alias period, fixing sufficient integer-time correlations makes one additional fractional-time fluctuation observation enough to exclude every common-temperature fit. A calibrated second pulse width provides another route through the same collective port: both widths must probe one spectrum and retain their measured variance scales. For a specified two-mode example, continuous-frequency certificates cover all common temperatures and uncertainty in a shared pulse ramp. A binary-readout protocol combines randomly interleaved matched references with collective-variance and coherence checks to handle Gaussian oscillator loss and predictable readout drift. The selected fractional-clock and two-width designs require approximately 3.8×10^7 and 1.6×10^8 outcomes for at most 5\% type-I error and at least 95\% power on the stated alternative class. These theoretical and numerical acquisition guarantees assume independently validated preparation, spectral support and control specifications; validation costs are additional. The result identifies which new observation makes thermal-model testing informative when mode-resolved access is unavailable.
ER -