The statistical distance between pure quantum states is obtained by finding a measurement that is optimal in a sense defined by Wootters. As such, one may expect that the statistical distance will turn out to be different if the set of possible measurements is restricted in some way. It nonetheless turns out that if the restriction is to local operations and classical communication (LOCC) on any multipartite system, then the statistical distance is the same as it is without restriction, being equal to the angle between the states in Hilbert space.
Chapter 3 of S. Lloyd's 1988 Ph.D. thesis, `Black Holes, Demons, and the Loss of Coherence: How complex systems get information and what they do with it,' supervisor Heinz Pagels. Reformulates statistical mechanics in terms of pure states and shows that (a) quantum statistics of typical pure states are very close to the mechanics of statistical mechanical ensembles; (b) if a system is in a typical state with energy E, then the reduced density matrix of a subsystem is very close to a thermal state. (A similar result was derived using Levy's lemma some years later by S. Popescu, A.J. Short, A.Wi…
The success of quantum information processing applications relies on accurate and efficient characterization of quantum states, especially nearly-pure states. In this work, we investigate a procedure for adaptive qubit state tomography which achieves $O(1/N)$ scaling in accuracy for large $N$. We analyze the performance of the adaptive protocol on the characterization of pure, mixed and nearly-pure states, and clarify the interplay between the purity of the state and the statistical fluctuations of the measurement results. Our results highlight the subtle difference between the characterizatio…
We present that the local unitary equivalence of n-party pure states is consistent with the one of their (n-1)-party reduced density matrices. As an application, we obtain the local invariants for a class of tripartite pure qudits.
Majorana Representation (MR) of symmetric $ N $-qubit pure states has been used successfully in entanglement classification. Generalization of this has been a long standing open problem due to the difficulties faced in the construction of a Majorana like geometric representation for symmetric mixed state. We have overcome this problem by developing a method of classifying local unitary (LU) equivalent classes of symmetric $N$-qubit mixed states based on the geometrical Multiaxial Representation (MAR) of the density matrix. In addition to the two parameters defined for the entanglement classifi…
We construct a linear optics measurement process to determine the entanglement measure, named \emph{I-concurrence}, of a set of $4 \times 4$ dimensional two-photon entangled pure states produced in the optical parametric down conversion process. In our experiment, an \emph{equivalent} symmetric projection for the two-fold copy of single subsystem (presented by L. Aolita and F. Mintert, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{97}, 050501 (2006)) can be realized by observing the one-side two-photon coincidence without any triggering detection on the other subsystem. Here, for the first time, we realize the mea…
Characterizing the transformation and classification of multipartite entangled states is a basic problem in quantum information. We study the problem under two most common environments, local operations and classical communications (LOCC), stochastic LOCC and two more general environments, multi-copy LOCC (MCLOCC) and multi-copy SLOCC (MCSLOCC). We show that two transformable multipartite states under LOCC or SLOCC are also transformable under MCLOCC and MCSLOCC. What's more, these two environments are equivalent in the sense that two transformable states under MCLOCC are also transformable un…
Performing perfect/conclusive quantum state exclusion means to be able to discard with certainty at least one out of n possible quantum state preparations by performing a measurement of the resulting state. This task of state exclusion has recently been studied at length in arXiv:1306.4683v3, and it is at the heart of the celebrated PBR thought experiment (arXiv:1111.3328v3). When all the preparations correspond to pure states and there are no more of them than their common dimension, it is an open problem whether POVMs give any additional power for this task with respect to projective measure…
A set of necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for the equivalence of an arbitrary pure state and a graph state on n qubits under stochastic local operations and classical communication (SLOCC), using the stabilizer formalism. Because all stabilizer states are equivalent to a graph state by local unitary transformations, these conditions constitute a classical algorithm for the determination of SLOCC-equivalence of pure states and stabilizer states. This algorithm provides a distinct advantage over the direct solution of the SLOCC-equivalence condition for an unknown invertible local…
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…
Many processes in nature seem to be entirely controlled by transition rates and the corresponding statistical dynamics. Some of them are in essence quantum, like the decay of excited states, the tunneling through barriers or the decay of unstable nuclei. Thus, starting from first principles, those systems should be analyzed on the basis of the Schroedinger equation. In the present paper we consider a two level system coupled to an environment which is basically described by an two-band energy scheme. For appropriately tuned environment parameters, the excitation probability of the two level sy…
We prove that a pure entangled state of two subsystems with equal spin is equivalent to a two-mode spin-squeezed state under local operations except for a set of bipartite states with measure zero, and we provide a counterexample to the generalization of this result to two subsystems of unequal spin.
In this paper, we discuss the problem of determining whether a quantum system is in a pure state, or in a mixed state. We apply two strategies to settle this problem: the unambiguous discrimination and the maximum confidence discrimination. We also proved that the optimal versions of both strategies are equivalent. The efficiency of the discrimination is also analyzed. This scheme also provides a method to estimate purity of quantum states, and Schmidt numbers of composed systems.
Necessary and sufficient conditions for the equivalence of arbitrary n-qubit pure quantum states under Local Unitary (LU) operations are derived. First, an easily computable standard form for multipartite states is introduced. Two generic states are shown to be LU-equivalent iff their standard forms coincide. The LU-equivalence problem for non--generic states is solved by presenting a systematic method to determine the LU operators (if they exist) which interconvert the two states.
We formulate statistical mechanics based on a pure quantum state, which we call a ``thermal pure quantum (TPQ) state''. A single TPQ state gives not only equilibrium values of mechanical variables, such as magnetization and correlation functions, but also those of genuine thermodynamic variables and thermodynamic functions, such as entropy and free energy. Among many possible TPQ states, we discuss the canonical TPQ state, the TPQ state whose temperature is specified. % We also propose there are other TPQ states. In the TPQ formulation of statistical mechanics, thermal fluctuations are complet…
The local purity of large many-body quantum systems can be studied by following a statistical mechanical approach based on a random matrix model. Restricting the analysis to the case of global pure states, this method proved to be successful and a full characterization of the statistical properties of the local purity was obtained by computing the partition function of the problem. Here we generalize these techniques to the case of global mixed states. Since the computation of the partition function is far more challenging than in the pure case, we focus on the computation of the first moments…
The response of a quantum system in a pure state to an external force is investigated by reconsidering the standard statistical approach to quantum dynamics on the light of the statistical description of equilibrium based on typicality. We prove that the response of the large majority of quantum pure states subjected to the same arbitrary external perturbation tends to be close to the statistical response as the dimension of the Hilbert space increases. This is what we can term dynamical typicality. The theoretical analysis is substantiated by numerical simulations of the response of a spin sy…
A thermal equilibrium state of a quantum many-body system can be represented by a typical pure state, which we call a thermal pure quantum (TPQ) state. We construct the canonical TPQ state, which corresponds to the canonical ensemble of the conventional statistical mechanics. Only a single realization of the TPQ state gives all variables of statistical-mechanical interest. We show that TPQ states corresponding to different ensembles give identical thermodynamic results, and they are related by simple analytic transformations. We have thus completed the TPQ formulation of statistical mechanics.…
The capabilities of a new approach towards the foundations of Statistical Mechanics are explored. The approach is genuine quantum in the sense that statistical behavior is a consequence of objective quantum uncertainties due to entanglement and uncertainty relations. No additional randomness is added by hand and no assumptions about a priori probabilities are made, instead measure concentration results are used to justify the methods of Statistical Physics. The approach explains the applicability of the microcanonical and canonical ensemble and the tendency to equilibrate in a natural way. Thi…
The necessary and sufficient conditions for the equivalence of arbitrary n-qubit pure quantum states under Local Unitary (LU) operations derived in [B. Kraus Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 020504 (2010)] are used to determine the different LU-equivalence classes of up to five-qubit states. Due to this classification new parameters characterizing multipartite entanglement are found and their physical interpretation is given. Moreover, the method is used to derive examples of two n-qubit states (with n>2 arbitrary) which have the properties that all the entropies of any subsystem coincide, however, the s…
Investigation on foundational aspects of quantum statistical mechanics recently entered a renaissance period due to novel intuitions from quantum information theory and to increasing attention on the dynamical aspects of single quantum systems. In the present contribution a simple but effective theoretical framework is introduced to clarify the connections between a purely mechanical description and the thermodynamic characterization of the equilibrium state of an isolated quantum system. A salient feature of our approach is the very transparent distinction between the statistical aspects and …
Resource theory of quantum coherence originated like entanglement in quantum information theory. However, still now proper classification of quantum states is missing under coherence. In this work, we have provided a classification of states under local incoherent operations. We have succeeded in deriving the necessary and sufficient condition for which two pure multipartite states are equivalent under stochastic local incoherent operations and classical communications (SLICC) and local incoherent operations and classical communications (LICC). In particular, we have succeeded in characterizin…
We classify biqutrit and triqutrit pure states under stochastic local operations and classical communication. By investigating the right singular vector spaces of the coefficient matrices of the states, we obtain explicitly two equivalent classes of biqutrit states and twelve equivalent classes of triqutrit states respectively.
We refine recent local unitary entanglement classification for symmetric pure states of $n$ qubits (that is, states invariant under permutations of qubits) using local unitary stabilizer subgroups and Majorana configurations. Stabilizer subgroups carry more entanglement distinguishing power than do the stabilizer subalgebras used in our previous work. We extend to mixed states recent results about local operations on pure symmetric states by showing that if two symmetric density operators are equivalent by a local unitary operation, then they are equivalent via a local unitary operation that i…
A family of probability distributions (i.e. a statistical model) is said to be sufficient for another, if there exists a transition matrix transforming the probability distributions in the former to the probability distributions in the latter. The Blackwell-Sherman-Stein (BSS) theorem provides necessary and sufficient conditions for one statistical model to be sufficient for another, by comparing their information values in statistical decision problems. In this paper we extend the BSS theorem to quantum statistical decision theory, where statistical models are replaced by families of density …
In this paper, we give a method for the local unitary equivalent problem which is more efficient than that was proposed by Bin Liu $et \ al$ \cite{bliu}.
We consider an alternative approach to the foundations of statistical mechanics, in which subjective randomness, ensemble-averaging or time-averaging are not required. Instead, the universe (i.e. the system together with a sufficiently large environment) is in a quantum pure state subject to a global constraint, and thermalisation results from entanglement between system and environment. We formulate and prove a "General Canonical Principle", which states that the system will be thermalised for almost all pure states of the universe, and provide rigorous quantitative bounds using Levy's Lemma.
The concept of entropy is fundamental to thermalization, yet appears at odds with basic principles in quantum mechanics. Statistical mechanics relies on the maximization of entropy for a system at thermal equilibrium. However, an isolated many-body system initialized in a pure state will remain pure during Schrödinger evolution, and in this sense has static, zero entropy. The underlying role of quantum mechanics in many-body physics is then seemingly antithetical to the success of statistical mechanics in a large variety of systems. Here we experimentally study the emergence of statistical mec…
The project concerns the interplay among quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, in isolated quantum systems. The underlying goal is to improve our understanding of the concept of thermal equilibrium in quantum systems. First, I investigated the role played by observables and measurements in the emergence of thermal behaviour. This led to a new notion of thermal equilibrium which is specific for a given observable, rather than for the whole state of the system. The equilibrium picture that emerges is a generalization of statistical mechanics in which we are not interested …
We generalize the thermal pure quantum (TPQ) formulation of statistical mechanics, in such a way that it is applicable to systems whose Hilbert space is infinite dimensional. Assuming particle systems, we construct the grand-canonical TPQ (gTPQ) state, which is the counterpart of the grand-canonical Gibbs state of the ensemble formulation. A single realization of the gTPQ state gives all quantities of statistical-mechanical interest, with exponentially small probability of error. This formulation not only sheds new light on quantum statistical mechanics but also is useful for practical computa…
