Simulating quantum dynamics of single-photon experiments

Abstract We perform simulation of quantum dynamics of photons in a laboratory experiment on a classical computer and examine how the simulation results compare with the theoretical predictions. The experiment involves both protective and projective measurements. While the latter involves complete wave function collapse, the former combines weak interactions with a protective mechanism thereby preserving the photon wave function coherence until its final detection. The simulation gives insights as to how efficient quantum simulation on a classical computer can be in simulating actual physical systems as the amount of computation increases. The main takeaway of this simulation is to examine out how a quantum simulation would perform on a noise free machine.