quant-phApr 23, 2026

The Feedback Hamiltonian is the Score Function: A Diffusion-Model Framework for Quantum Trajectory Reversal

Authors: Sagar DubeyAlan John

Organizations: Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA

Abstract

In continuously monitored quantum systems, the feedback protocol of García-Pintos, Liu, and Gorshkov reshapes the arrow of time: a Hamiltonian Hmeas=rA/τH_{\mathrm{meas}} = r A / τ applied with gain XX tilts the distribution of measurement trajectories, with X<2X < -2 producing statistically time-reversed outcomes. Why this specific Hamiltonian achieves reversal, and how the mechanism relates to score-based diffusion models in machine learning, has remained unexplained. We compute the functional derivative of the log path probability of the quantum trajectory distribution directly in density-matrix space. Combining Girsanov's theorem applied to the measurement record, Fréchet differentiation on the Banach space of trace-class operators, and Kähler geometry on the pure-state projective manifold, we prove that δlogPF/δρ=rA/τ=Hmeasδ\log P_F / δρ= r A / τ= H_{\mathrm{meas}}. The García-Pintos feedback Hamiltonian is the score function of the quantum trajectory distribution -- exactly the object Anderson's reverse-time diffusion theorem requires for trajectory reversal. The identification extends to multi-qubit systems with independent measurement channels, where the score is a sum of local operators. Two consequences follow. First, the feedback gain XX generates a continuous one-parameter family of path measures (for feedback-active Hamiltonians with [H,A]0[H, A] \neq 0), with X=2X = -2 recovering the backward process in leading-order linearization -- a structure absent from classical diffusion, where reversal is binary. Second, the score identification enables machine learning (ML) score estimation methods -- denoising score matching, sliced score matching -- to replace the analytic formula when its idealizations (unit efficiency, zero delay, Gaussian noise) fail in real experiments.

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