Tomographic Representation of Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Physics
Olga V. Man'ko
备注:
Invited talk at the International Conference "Foundations of Probability and Physics-5" (Vaxjo, Sweden, 2008), to appear in: L. Accardi, G. Adenier, C. Fuchs, G. Jaeger, A. Yu. Khrennikov, J.-A. Larsson, S. Stenholm (Eds.), Foundations of Probability and Physics-5, American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1101, New-York (2009)
A review of the photon-number tomography and symplectic tomography as examples of star-product quantization is presented. The classical statistical mechanics is considered within the framework of the tomographic representation.
The problem of quantum particle moving in Dirac delta potential with instant changing well depth is studied by using formalism of tomographic representation of quantum mechanics.The bound state tomogram is given in terms of error function.The ionisation probability due to instant change of the potential parameter is calculated in terms of integral containing the state tomograms.The probability of ionisation is also expressed in terms of the Wigner function.
We formulate necessary and sufficient conditions for a symplectic tomogram of a quantum state to determine the density state. We establish a connection between the (re)construction by means of symplectic tomograms with the construction by means of Naimark positive-definite functions on the Weyl-Heisenberg group. This connection is used to formulate properties which guarantee that tomographic probabilities describe quantum states in the probability representation of quantum mechanics.
A review of the tomographic-probability representation of classical and quantum states is presented. The tomographic entropies and entropic uncertainty relations are discussed in connection with ambiguities in the interpretation of the state tomograms which are considered either as a set of the probability distributions of random variables depending on extra parameters or as a single joint probability distribution of these random variables and random parameters with specific properties of the marginals. Examples of optical tomograms of photon states, symplectic tomograms, and unitary spin tomo…
On the base of symplectic quantum tomogram we define a probability distribution on the plane. The dual map transfers all observables which are polynomials of the position and momentum operators to the set of polynomials of two variables. In this representation the average values of observables can be calculated by means of integration over all the plane.
Starting from the famous Pauli problem on the possibility to associate quantum states with probabilities, the formulation of quantum mechanics in which quantum states are described by fair probability distributions (tomograms, i.e. tomographic probabilities) is reviewed in a pedagogical style. The relation between the quantum state description and the classical state description is elucidated. The difference of those sets of tomograms is described by inequalities equivalent to a complete set of uncertainty relations for the quantum domain and to nonnegativity of probability density on phase sp…
The tomographic approach to quantum mechanics is revisited as a direct tool to investigate violation of Bell-like inequalities. Since quantum tomograms are well defined probability distributions, the tomographic approach is emphasized to be the most natural one to compare the predictions of classical and quantum theory. Examples of inequalities for two qubits an two qutrits are considered in the tomographic probability representation of spin states.
The two-mode even and odd coherent states and two-mode squeezed correlated state are discussed. Photon distribution functions, means, dispersions, Fano factor for even and odd coherent states and squeezed correlated state are calculated. The photon distribution function for two-mode squeezed correlated state is obtained. The tomograms of two-mode even and odd coherent states and squeezed correlated states are investigated within the framework of a symplectic tomography scheme. It is shown that the phenomenon of entanglement appears in the system. Two different measures of entanglement are empl…
Some inequalities for probability vector are discussed. The probability representation of quantum mechanics where the states are mapped onto probability vectors (either finite or infinite dimensional) called the state tomograms is used. Examples of inequalities for qudit tomograms and a state extended uncertainly relation are considered. Tomographic cumulant related to photon state tomographic probability distributions is introduced and it is used as parameter of the state nongaussianity.
The existing relation between the tomographic description of quantum states and the convolution algebra of certain discrete groupoids represented on Hilbert spaces will be discussed. The realizations of groupoid algebras based on qudit, photon-number (Fock) states and symplectic tomography quantizers and dequantizers will be constructed. Conditions for identifying the convolution product of groupoid functions and the star--product arising from a quantization--dequantization scheme will be given. A tomographic approach to construct quasi--distributions out of suitable immersions of groupoids in…
Statistical properties of classical random process are considered in tomographic representation. The Radon integral transform is used to construct the tomographic form of kinetic equations. Relation of probability density on phase space for classical systems with tomographic probability distributions is elucidated. Examples of simple kinetic equations like Liouville equations for one and many particles are studied in detail.
We introduce a new method to calculate Franck-Condon factors in polyatomic molecules that is based on the tomographic probability approach to quantum mechanics. This approach is implemented to calculate transition probabilities in various systems under an instantaneous change of frequency and equilibrium position of nuclei in a molecule by an external force. The problem is considered for different types of the Dushinsky matrix and for any quantity of atoms in a molecule.
We emphasize in these pedagogical notes the that the theory of the Radon transform and its applications is best understood using the theory of the metaplectic group and the quadratic Fourier transforms generating metaplectic operator.. Doing this we hope that these notes will be useful to a larger audience, including researchers in time-frequency analysis.
The coherent and Fock states of a charge moving in varying homogeneous magnetic field are studied in the tomographic probability representation of quantum mechanics. The states are expressed in terms of quantum tomograms. The coherent states tomograms are shown to be described by normal distributions with varying dispersions and means. The Fock state tomograms are given in the form of probability distributions described by multivariable Hermite polynomials with time-dependent arguments.
Glauber coherent states of quantum systems are reviewed. We construct the tomographic probability distributions of the oscillator states. The possibility to describe quantum states by tomographic probability distributions (tomograms) is presented on an example of coherent states of parametric oscillator. The integrals of motion linear in the position and momentum are used to explicitly obtain the tomogram evolution expressed in terms of trajectories of classical parametric oscillator
The quantum state of light changes its nature when being reflected off a mechanical oscillator due to the latter's susceptibility to radiation pressure. As a result, a coherent state can transform into a squeezed state and can get entangled with the motion of the oscillator. The complete tomographic reconstruction of the state of light requires the ability to readout arbitrary quadratures. Here we demonstrate such a readout by applying a balanced homodyne detector to an interferometric position measurement of a thermally excited high-Q silicon nitride membrane in a Michelson-Sagnac interferome…
A review of the symplectic tomographic approaches within the framework of star-product quantization is presented. The classical statistical mechanics within the framework of the tomographic representation is considered. The kernels of star-product of functions - symbols of operators in classical and quantum mechanics are presented.
We consider quantum correlations and quantum discord phenomena for two-qubit states with $X$-type density matrices in the tomographic framework of quantum mechanics. By introducing different measurements schemes, we establish the relation between tomographic approach to quantum discord, symmetric discord, and measurement-induced disturbance. In our consideration, $X$-states appear as approximations of ground and low temperature thermal states of two coupled harmonic oscillators realized by nanoelectric $LC$-circuits. Possibilities for control the amounts of correlations and entropic asymmetry …
In this job, we will present a theory called Quantum Tomography that is the natural extension of the theory of detection of signals in classical telecommunications to Quantum Mechanics. This theory mainly consists in the reconstruction of a quantum state of a system through a probability distribution measured directly in the laboratory, usually called Tomogram. This Thesis contains five chapters. In the first one, we will show the birth of this theory as an adaptation of homodyne and heterodyne classical detection to Quantum Mechanics. In the second, we will describe a tomographic description …
The problem of moving of a charged particle in electromagnetic field is considered in terms of tomographic probability representation. The coherent and Fock states of a charge moving in varying homogeneous magnetic field are studied in the tomographic probability representation of quantum mechanics. The states are expressed in terms of quantum tomograms. The Fock state tomograms are given in the form of probability distributions described by multivariable Hermite polynomials with time-dependent arguments. The obtained results are generalized in the present work and are applied to determining t…
The relation of the Wigner function with the fair probability distribution called tomographic distribution or quantum tomogram associated with the quantum state is reviewed. The connection of the tomographic picture of quantum mechanics with the integral Radon transform of the Wigner quasidistribution is discussed. The Wigner--Moyal equation for the Wigner function is presented in the form of kinetic equation for the tomographic probability distribution both in quantum mechanics and in the classical limit of the Liouville equation. The calculation of moments of physical observables in terms of…
Explicit expressions for most interesting quantum operators in optical tomography representation are found. General formalism of symbols of operators is presented in optical tomographic representation. The symbols of the operators are found explicitly for physical quantities.
Within the framework of the probability representation of quantum mechanics, we study a superposition of generic Gaussian states associated to symmetries of a regular polygon of n sides; in other words, the cyclic groups (containing the rotational symmetries) and dihedral groups (containing the rotational and inversion symmetries). We obtain the Wigner functions and tomographic probability distributions (symplectic and optical tomograms) determining the density matrices of the states explicitly as the sums of Gaussian terms. The obtained Wigner functions demonstrate nonclassical behavior, i.e.…
The nine-component positive vector optical tomographic probability portrait of quantum state of spin-1 particles containing full spatial and spin information about the state without redundancy is constructed. Also the suggested approach is expanded to symplectic tomography representation and to representations with quasidistributions. The evolution equations for constructed vector optical and symplectic tomograms and vector quasidistributions for arbitrary Hamiltonian are found. The evolution equations are also obtained in special case of the quantum system of charged spin-1 particle in arbitr…
Quantum tomography has become a key tool for the assessment of quantum states, processes, and devices. This drives the search for tomographic methods that achieve greater accuracy. In the case of mixed states of a single 2-dimensional quantum system adaptive methods have been recently introduced that achieve the theoretical accuracy limit deduced by Hayashi and Gill and Massar. However, accurate estimation of higher-dimensional quantum states remains poorly understood. This is mainly due to the existence of incompatible observables, which makes multiparameter estimation difficult. Here we pres…
We present a novel quantum tomographic reconstruction method based on Bayesian inference via the Kalman filter update equations. The method not only yields the maximum likelihood/optimal Bayesian reconstruction, but also a covariance matrix expressing the measurement uncertainties in a complete way. From this covariance matrix the error bars on any derived quantity can be easily calculated. This is a first step towards the broader goal of devising an omnibus reconstruction method that could be adapted to any tomographic setup with little effort and that treats measurement uncertainties in a st…
It is usually believed that a picture of Quantum Mechanics in terms of true probabilities cannot be given due to the uncertainty relations. Here we discuss a tomographic approach to quantum states that leads to a probability representation of quantum states. This can be regarded as a classical-like formulation of quantum mechanics which avoids the counterintuitive concepts of wave function and density operator. The relevant concepts of quantum mechanics are then reconsidered and the epistemological implications of such approach discussed.
The tomographic reconstruction of the state of a quantum-mechanical system is an essential component in the development of quantum technologies. We present an overview of different tomographic methods for determining the quantum-mechanical density matrix of a single qubit: (scaled) direct inversion, maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), minimum Fisher information distance, and Bayesian mean estimation (BME). We discuss the different prior densities in the space of density matrices, on which both MLE and BME depend, as well as ways of including experimental errors and of estimating tomography er…
The probability representation of quantum and classical statistical mechanics is discussed. Symplectic tomography, center-of-mass tomography, and spin tomography are studied. The connection of tomographic probabilities with dynamic symmetries like symplectic group is considered. Entropic uncertainty relations and inequalities for spin tomograms are reviewed.
The tomographic picture of quantum mechanics has brought the description of quantum states closer to that of classical probability and statistics. On the other hand, the geometrical formulation of quantum mechanics introduces a metric tensor and a symplectic tensor (Hermitian tensor) on the space of pure states. By putting these two aspects together, we show that the Fisher information metric, both classical and quantum, can be described by means of the Hermitian tensor on the manifold of pure states.
The linear canonical transforms of position and momentum are used to construct the tomographic probability representation of quantum states where the fair probability distribution determines the quantum state instead of the wave function or density matrix. The example of Moshinsky shutter problem is considered.
We consider the problem of the driven harmonic oscillator in the probability representation of quantum mechanics, where the oscillator states are described by fair nonnegative probability distributions of position measured in rotated and squeezed reference frames in the system's phase space. For some specific oscillator states like coherent states and nth excited states, the tomographic-probability distributions (called the state tomograms) are found in an explicit form. The evolution equation for the tomograms is discussed for the classical and quantum driven oscillators, and the tomographic …
Review of the probability representation of quantum mechanics and the symplectic tomography approach are presented. The examples of Gaussian states of nanoelectric circuit, Josephson junction, and two interacting high-quality resonant circuits are considered. The Shannon entropy, quantum information, fidelity, and purity of quantum states in the tomographic representation of quantum mechanics are studied.
We introduce an operational and statistically meaningful measure, the quantum tomographic transfer function, that possesses important physical invariance properties for judging whether a given informationally complete quantum measurement performs better tomographically in quantum-state estimation relative to other informationally complete measurements. This function is independent of the unknown true state of the quantum source, and is directly related to the average optimal tomographic accuracy of an unbiased state estimator for the measurement in the limit of many sampling events. For the ex…
Symplectic and optical joint probability representations of quantum mechanics are considered, in which the functions describing the states are the probability distributions with all random arguments (except the argument of time ). The general formalism of quantizers and dequantizers determining the star product quantization scheme in these representations is given. Taking the Gaussian functions as the distributions of the tomographic parameters the correspondence rules for most interesting physical operators are found and the expressions of the dual symbols of operators in the form of singular…
The tomographic invertable map of the Wigner function onto the positive probability distribution function is studied. Alternatives to the Schrödinger evolution equation and to the energy level equation written for the positive probability distribution are discussed. Instead of the transition probability amplitude (Feynman path integral) a transition probability is introduced. A new formulation of the conventional quantum mechanics (without wave function and density matrix) based on the ``probability representation'' of quantum states is given. An equation for the propagator in the new formulat…
In this work, the operator-sum representation of a quantum process is extended to the probability representation of quantum mechanics. It is shown that each process admitting the operator-sum representation is assigned a kernel, convolving of which with the initial tomogram set characterizing the system state gives the tomographic state of the transformed system. This kernel, in turn, is broken into the kernels of partial operations, each of them incorporating the symbol of the evolution operator related to the joint evolution of the system and an ancillary environment. Such a kernel decomposi…
Review of tomographic probability representation of quantum states is presented both for oscillator systems with continious variables and spin--systems with discrete variables. New entropic--information inequalities are obtained for Franck--Condon factors. Density matrices of qudit states are expressed in terms of probabilities of artificial qubits as well as the quantum suprematism approach to geometry of these states using the triadas of Malevich squares is developed. Examples of qubits, qutrits and ququarts are considered.
Various reconstructions of finite-dimensional quantum mechanics result in a formally real Jordan algebra A and a last step remains to conclude that A is the self-adjoint part of a C*-algebra. Using a quantum logical setting, it is shown that this can be achieved by postulating that there is a locally tomographic model for a composite system consisting of two copies of the same system. Local tomography is a feature of classical probability theory and quantum mechanics; it means that state tomography for a multipartite system can be performed by simultaneous measurements in all subsystems. The q…
It is now well established that quantum tomography provides an alternative picture of quantum mechanics. It is common to introduce tomographic concepts starting with the Schrodinger-Dirac picture of quantum mechanics on Hilbert spaces. In this picture states are a primary concept and observables are derived from them. On the other hand, the Heisenberg picture,which has evolved in the $C^\star-$algebraic approach to quantum mechanics, starts with the algebra of observables and introduce states as a derived concept. The equivalence between these two pictures amounts essentially, to the Gelfand-N…
Both the set of quantum states and the set of classical states described by symplectic tomographic probability distributions (tomograms) are studied. It is shown that the sets have common part but there exist tomograms of classical states which are not admissible in quantum mechanics and vica versa, there exist tomograms of quantum states which are not admissible in classical mechanics. Role of different transformations of reference frames in phase space of classical and quantum systems (scaling and rotation) determining the admissibility of the tomograms as well as the role of quantum uncerta…
We apply a Bayesian data analysis scheme known as the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to the tomographic reconstruction of quantum states. This method yields a vector, known as the Markov chain, which contains the full statistical information concerning all reconstruction parameters including their statistical correlations with no a priori assumptions as to the form of the distribution from which it has been obtained. From this vector can be derived, e. g. the marginal distributions and uncertainties of all model parameters and also of other quantities such as the purity of the reconstructed s…
In the framework of quantum information geometry, we derive, from quantum relative Tsallis entropy, a family of quantum metrics on the space of full rank, N level quantum states, by means of a suitably defined coordinate free differential calculus. The cases N = 2, N = 3 are discussed in detail and notable limits are analyzed. The radial limit procedure has been used to recover quantum metrics for lower rank states, such as pure states. By using the tomographic picture of quantum mechanics we have obtained the Fisher- Rao metric for the space of quantum tomograms and derived a reconstruction f…
The new inequality recently found by Trifonov and called the state-extended inequality is considered in the tomographic-probability representation of quantum mechanics. The Trifonov uncertainty relations are expressed in terms of optical tomograms and can be checked in experiments on homodyne detection of the photon states.
Quantum mechanics can be formulated in terms of phase-space functions, according to Wigner's approach. A generalization of this approach consists in replacing the density operators of the standard formulation with suitable functions, the so-called generalized Wigner functions or (group-covariant) tomograms, obtained by means of group-theoretical methods. A typical problem arising in this context is to express the evolution of a quantum system in terms of tomograms. In the case of a (suitable) open quantum system, the dynamics can be described by means of a quantum dynamical semigroup 'in disgu…
In this paper we discuss and analyse the idea of trying to see (non-relativistic) quantum mechanics as a ``space-time statistical mechanics'', by using the classical statistical mechanical method on objective microscopic space-time configurations. It is argued that this could perhaps be accomplished by giving up the assumption that the objective ``state'' of a system is independent of a future measurement performed on the system. This idea is then applied in an example of quantum state estimation on a qubit system.
It is shown that the statistical conception of quantum mechanics is dynamical but not probabilistic, i.e. the statistical description in quantum mechanics is founded on dynamics. A use of the probability theory, when it takes place, is auxiliary. Attention is drawn to the fact that in the quantum mechanics there are two different objects: an individual object to be statistically described and a statistical average object, which is a result of the statistical description. Identification of the two different objects (a use of the same term for both) is an origin of many known quantum mechanics p…
We consider the statistical properties of photon detection with imperfect detectors that exhibit dark counts and less than unit efficiency, in the context of tomographic reconstruction. In this context, the detectors are used to implement certain POVMs that would allow to reconstruct the quantum state or quantum process under consideration. Here we look at the intermediate step of inferring outcome probabilities from measured outcome frequencies, and show how this inference can be performed in a statistically sound way in the presence of detector imperfections. Merging outcome probabilities fo…
Classical statistical average values are generally generalized to average values of quantum mechanics, it is discovered that quantum mechanics is direct generalization of classical statistical mechanics, and we generally deduce both a new general continuous eigenvalue equation and a general discrete eigenvalue equation in quantum mechanics, and discover that a eigenvalue of quantum mechanics is just an extreme value of an operator in possibility distribution, the eigenvalue f is just classical observable quantity. A general classical statistical uncertain relation is further given, the general…
In this paper we develop the Hellmann-Feynman theorem in statistical mechanics without resorting to the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian operator. Present approach does not require the quantum-mechanical version of the theorem at $T=0$ and bypasses any discussion about degenerate states.
The review of star-product formalism providing the possibility to describe quantum states and quantum observables by means of the functions called symbols of operators which are obtained by means of bijective maps of the operators acting in Hilbert space onto these functions is presented. Examples of the Wigner-Weyl symbols (like Wigner quasi-distributions) and tomographic probability distributions (symplectic, optical and photon-number tomograms) identified with the states of the quantum systems are discussed. Properties of quantizer-dequantizer operators which are needed to construct the bij…
The classical-statistical limit of quantum mechanics is studied. It is proved that the limit $\hbar \to 0$ is the good limit for the operators algebra but it si not so for the state compact set. In the last case decoherence must be invoked to obtain the classical-statistical limit.
We argue here that, as it happens in Classical and Quantum Mechanics, where it has been proven that alternative Hamiltonian descriptions can be compatible with a given set of equations of motion, the same holds true in the realm of Statistical Mechanics, i.e. that alternative Hamiltonian descriptions do lead to the same thermodynamical description of any physical system.
Bell's inequalities in the form given by Wigner are derived from the so-called fundamental assumption of statistical mechanics. I then demonstrate the possible relationship between these inequalities and the second law, particularly if assuming the Pauli exclusion principle dictates the expected outcomes.
We implement Feynman's suggestion that the only missing notion needed for the puzzle of Quantum Measurement is the statistical mechanics of amplifying apparatus. We define a thermodynamic limit of quantum amplifiers which is a classically describable system in the sense of Bohr, and define macroscopic pointer variables for the limit system. Then we derive the probabilities of Quantum Measurement from the deterministic Schroedinger equation by the usual techniques of Classical Statistical Mechanics.
The authors of the recent paper [1] boldly claim to discover a new fully quantum approach to foundation of statistical mechanics: "Our conceptually novel approach is free of mathematically ambiguous notions such as probability, ensemble, randomness, etc." The aim of this note is to show that this approach is neither specific for quantum systems nor really conceptually different from the standard textbook arguments supporting microcanonical or canonical ensembles in statistical mechanics.
The Dirac equation, usually obtained by `quantizing' a classical stochastic model is here obtained directly within classical statistical mechanics. The special underlying space-time geometry of the random walk replaces the missing analytic continuation, making the model `self-quantizing'. This provides a new context for the Dirac equation, distinct from its usual context in relativistic quantum mechanics.
In this paper the problem of tomographic reconstruction of states is investigated within the so-called Schwinger's picture of Quantum Mechanics in which a groupoid is associated with every quantum system. The attention is focused on spin tomography: In this context the groupoid of interest is the groupoid of pairs over a finite set. In a nutshell, this groupoid is made up of transitions between all possible pairs of outcomes belonging to a finite set. In addition, these transitions possess a partial composition rule, generalizing the notion of groups. The main goal of the paper consists in pro…
We expand the scope of the statistical notion of error probability, i.e., how often large deviations are observed in an experiment, in order to make it directly applicable to quantum tomography. We verify that the error probability can decrease at most exponentially in the number of trials, derive the explicit rate that bounds this decrease, and show that a maximum likelihood estimator achieves this bound. We also show that the statistical notion of identifiability coincides with the tomographic notion of informational completeness. Our result implies that two quantum tomographic apparatuses t…