We introduce action quantum speed limits (QSLs) as a family of bounds on the minimal time to connect two states that, unlike the usual geometric approach, crucially depend on how the path is traversed, i.e. on the instantaneous speed. The two approaches provide consistent bounds when the instantaneous speed is optimized along a fixed path and we demonstrate this explicitly for the case of a thermalizing qubit employing techniques from optimal control theory. In addition, we critically analyze the interpretation of QSLs based on different choices of metric establishing that, in general, these open system QSL times provide an indication of optimality with respect to the geodesic path, rather than necessarily being indicative of an achievable minimal time.
In the well-known EPR paper, Einstein et al. called the nonlocal correlation in quantum entanglement as `spooky action at a distance'. If the spooky action does exist, what is its speed? All previous experiments along this direction have locality loopholes and thus can be explained without having to invoke any `spooky action' at all. Here, we strictly closed the locality loopholes by observing a 12-hour continuous violation of Bell inequality and concluded that the lower bound speed of `spooky action' was four orders of magnitude of the speed of light if the Earth's speed in any inertial refer…
In a recent experiment, Salart et al. addressed the important issues of the speed of hypothetical communication and of reference frames in Bell-type experiments. The authors report that they "performed a Bell experiment using entangled photons" and conclude from their experimental results that "to maintain an explanation based on spooky action at a distance we would have to assume that the spooky action propagates at speeds even greater than the bounds obtained in our experiment", exceeding the speed of light by orders of magnitude. Here we show that, analyzing the experimental procedure, expl…
Suppose a Boolean function $f$ is symmetric under a group action $G$ acting on the $n$ bits of the input. For which $G$ does this mean $f$ does not have an exponential quantum speedup? Is there a characterization of how rich $G$ must be before the function $f$ cannot have enough structure for quantum algorithms to exploit? In this work, we make several steps towards understanding the group actions $G$ which are "quantum intolerant" in this way. We show that sufficiently transitive group actions do not allow a quantum speedup, and that a "well-shuffling" property of group actions -- which happe…
In science, one observes correlations and invents theoretical models that describe them. In all sciences, besides quantum physics, all correlations are described by either of two mechanisms. Either a first event influences a second one by sending some information encoded in bosons or molecules or other physical carriers, depending on the particular science. Or the correlated events have some common causes in their common past. Interestingly, quantum physics predicts an entirely different kind of cause for some correlations, named entanglement. This new kind of cause reveals itself, e.g., in co…
We study the maximum speed of quantum computation and how it is affected by limitations on physical resources. We show how the resulting concepts generalize to a broader class of physical models of computation within dynamical systems and introduce a specific algebraic structure representing these speed limits. We derive a family of quantum speed limit results in resource-constrained quantum systems with pure states and a finite dimensional state space, by using a geometric method based on right invariant action functionals on $SU(N)$. We show that when the action functional is bi-invariant, t…
We provide a justification of the quantum speed-up based on the complementary roles played by the reversible preparation of an entangled state before measurement and by the final measurement action.
The minimal time a system requires to transform from an initial state to target state is defined as the quantum speed limit time. quantum speed limit time can be applied to quantify the maximum speed of the evolution of a quantum system. Quantum speed limit time is inversely related to the speed of evolution of a quantum system. That is, shorter quantum speed limit time means higher speed of quantum evolution. In this work, we study the quantum speed limit time of a two-level atom under Homodyne-based feedback control. The results show that the quantum speed limit time is decreased by increasi…
The minimum time a system needs to change from an initial state to a final orthogonal state is called quantum speed limit time. Quantum speed limit time can be used to quantify the speed of the quantum evolution. The speed of the quantum evolution will increase, if the quantum speed limit time decreases. In this work we will use relative purity based bound for quantum speed limit time. It is applicable for any arbitrary initial state. Here, we investigate the effects of filtering operation on quantum speed limit time. It will be observed that for some intervals of filtering operation parameter…
We derive a family of quantum speed limit results in time independent systems with pure states and a finite dimensional state space, by using a geometric method based on right invariant action functionals on SU(N). The method relates speed limits for implementing quantum gates to bounds on orthogonality times. We reproduce the known result of the Margolus-Levitin theorem, and a known generalisation of the Margolis-Levitin theorem, as special cases of our method, which produces a rich family of other similar speed limit formulas corresponding to positive homogeneous functions on su(n). We discu…
The quantum speed of evolution for the phase covariant map is investigated. This involves absorption, emission and dephasing processes. We consider the maps under various combinations of the above processes to investigate the effect of phase covariant maps on quantum speed limit time. For absorption-free phase covariant maps, combinations of dissipative and CP-(in)divisible (non)-Markovian dephasing noises are considered. The role of coherence-mixedness balance on the speed limit time is checked in the presence of both vacuum and finite temperature effects. We also investigate the rate at whic…
Quantum speed limits set an upper bound to the rate at which a quantum system can evolve. Adopting a phase-space approach we explore quantum speed limits across the quantum to classical transition and identify equivalent bounds in the classical world. As a result, and contrary to common belief, we show that speed limits exist for both quantum and classical systems. As in the quantum domain, classical speed limits are set by a given norm of the generator of time evolution.
I report a tight upper bound of the maximum speed of evolution from one quantum state $ρ$ to another $ρ'$ with fidelity $F(ρ,ρ')$ less than or equal to an arbitrary but fixed value under the action of a time-independent Hamiltonian. Since the bound is directly proportional to the average absolute deviation from the median of the energy of the state ${\mathscr D}E$, one may interpret ${\mathscr D}E$ as a meaningful measure of the maximum information processing capability of a system.
We present a method to accelerate the dynamical evolution of multiqubit open system by employing dynamical decoupling pulses (DDPs) when the qubits are initially in W-type states. It is found that this speed-up evolution can be achieved in both of the weak-coupling regime and the strong-coupling regime. The physical mechanism behind the acceleration evolution is explained as the result of the joint action of the non-Markovianity of reservoirs and the excited-state population of qubits. It is shown that both of the non-Markovianity and the excited-state population can be controlled by DDPs to r…
We found that the measurement sensitivity of an optical integrating gyroscope is fundamentally limited due to ponderomotive action of the light leading to the standard quantum limit of the rotation angle detection. The uncorrelated quantum fluctuations of power of clockwise and counterclockwise electromagnetic waves result in optical power-dependent uncertainty of the angular gyroscope position. We also show that, on the other hand, a quantum back action evading measurement of angular momentum of a gyroscope becomes feasible if proper measurement strategy is selected. The angle is perturbed in…
We study the effect of correlated Markovian noise channels on the quantum speed limit of an open system. This is done for correlated dephasing and amplitude damping channels for a two qubit atomic model. Our model serves as a platform for a detailed study of speed of quantum evolution in correlated open systems.
We investigate if physical laws can impose limit on computational time and speed of a quantum computer built from elementary particles. We show that the product of the speed and the running time of a quantum computer is limited by the type of fundamental interactions present inside the system. This will help us to decide as to what type of interaction should be allowed in building quantum computers in achieving the desired speed.
Bounds of the minimum evolution time between two distinguishable states of a system can help to assess the maximal speed of quantum computers and communication channels. We study the quantum speed limit time of a composite quantum states in the presence of nondissipative decoherence. For the initial states with maximally mixed marginals, we obtain the exactly expressions of quantum speed limit time which mainly depend on the parameters of the initial states and the decoherence channels. Furthermore, by calculating quantum speed limit time for the time-dependent states started from a class of i…
Quantum mechanics imposes fundamental constraints known as quantum speed limits (QSLs) on the information processing speed of all quantum systems. Every QSL known to date comes from the restriction imposed on the evolution time between two quantum states through the value of a single system observable such as the mean energy relative to its ground state. So far these restrictions only place upper bounds on the information processing speed of a quantum system. Here I report QSLs each with permissible information processing speeds separated by forbidden speed intervals. They are found by a syste…
The quantum speed limit provides fundamental bound on how fast a quantum system can evolve between the initial and the final states. For the unitary evolution, the celebrated Mandelstam-Tamm (MT) bound has been widely studied for various systems. Here, we prove a stronger quantum speed limit (SQSL) for all quantum systems undergoing arbitrary unitary evolution and show that the MT bound is a special case of the stronger quantum speed limit. We apply our result for single system as well as for composite systems in separable and entangled states and show that the new bound is indeed tight. The s…
The quantum speed limit provides a fundamental bound on how fast a quantum system can evolve between the initial and the final states under any physical operation. The celebrated Mandelstam-Tamm (MT) bound has been widely studied for various quantum systems undergoing unitary time evolution. Here, we prove a new quantum speed limit using the tighter uncertainty relations for pure quantum systems undergoing arbitrary unitary evolution. We also derive a tighter uncertainty relation for mixed quantum states and then derive a new quantum speed limit for mixed quantum states from it such that it re…
The quantum speed limit (QSL) is the theoretical lower limit of the time for a quantum system to evolve from a given state to another one. Interestingly, it has been shown that non-Markovianity can be used to speed-up the dynamics and to lower the QSL time, although this behavior is not universal. In this paper we further carry on the investigation on the connection between QSL and non-Markovianity by looking at the effects of P- and CP-divisibility of the dynamical map to the quantum speed limit. We show that the speed-up can also be observed under P- and CP-divisible dynamics, and that the s…
The generic bound of quantum speed limit time (the minimal evolution time) for a qubit system interacting with structural environment is investigated. We define a new bound for the quantum speed limit. It is shown that the non-Markovianity and the population of the excited state can fail to signal the quantum evolution acceleration, but the initial-state dependence is an important factor. In particular, we find that different quantum speed limits could produce contradictory predictions on the quantum evolution acceleration.
Quantum theory sets a limit on the minimum time required to transform from an initial state to a target state. It is known as quantum speed limit time. quantum speed limit time can be used to determine the rate of quantum evolution for closed and open quantum systems. Given that in the real world we are dealing with open quantum systems, the study of quantum speed limit time for such systems has particular importance. In this work we consider the topological qubit realized by two Majorana modes. We consider the case in which the topological qubit is influenced by fermionic and bosonic environm…
Using the approach offered by quantum speed limit, we show that geometric measure of multipartite entanglement for pure states [Phys. Rev. A 68, 042307(2003)] can be interpreted as the minimal time necessary to unitarily evolve a given quantum state to a separable one.
The quantum speed limit is a fundamental upper bound on the speed of quantum evolution. However, the actual mathematical expression of this fundamental limit depends on the choice of a measure of distinguishability of quantum states. We show that quantum speed limits are universally characterized by the Schatten-$p$-norm of the generator of quantum dynamics. Since computing Schatten-$p$-norms can be mathematically involved, we then develop an alternative approach in Wigner phase space. We find that the quantum speed limit in Wigner space is fully equivalent to expressions in density operator s…
We study the quantum speed limit time for a two-qubit system interacts with indepen- dent and common reservoir. The system is initially prepared in a class of X-structure density matrix, namely the extended Werner-like states (EWL). We demonstrate that when reservoir enters to the non-Markovian regime, the quantum speed limit time de- crease more sharply in a common reservoir than independent reservoirs.
One of the defining properties of an open quantum system is the variation of its purity in time. We derive speed limits on the rate of purity change for systems coupled to a Markovian environment. Our speed limits are based on Liouville space where density matrices are represented as vectors. This approach leads to speed limits that are always tighter compared to their parallel speed limits in Hilbert space. These bounds depend solely on the generators of the nonunitary dynamics and are independent of the particular states of the systems. Thus, they are perfectly suited to investigate dephasin…
Quantum speed limit time defines the limit on the minimum time required for a quantum system to evolve between two states. Investigation of bounds on speed limit time of quantum system under non-unitary evolution is of fundamental interest, as it reveals interesting connections to quantum (non-)Markovianity. Here, we discuss the characteristics of quantum speed limit time as a function of quantum memory, quantified as the deviation from temporal self-similarity of quantum dynamical maps for CP-divisible as well as indivisible maps, and show that the presence of quantum memory can speed up quan…
We derive a Margolus-Levitin type bound on the minimal evolution time of an arbitrarily driven open quantum system. We express this quantum speed limit time in terms of the operator norm of the nonunitary generator of the dynamics. We apply these results to the damped Jaynes-Cummings model and demonstrate that the corresponding bound is tight. We further show that non-Markovian effects can speed up quantum evolution and therefore lead to a smaller quantum speed limit time.
We investigated the quantum speed limit time of a qubit system with non-Hermitian detuning. Our results show that, with respect to two distinguishable states of the non-Hermitian system, the evolutionary time does not have a nonzero lower bound. And the quantum evolution of the system can be effectively accelerated by adjusting the non-Hermitian detuning parameter, as well as the quantum speed limit time can be arbitrarily small even be zero.
The classical version of Mandelstam-Tamm speed limit based on the Wigner function in phase space is reported by B. Shanahan et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 070401 (2018)]. In this paper, the Margolus-Levitin speed limit across the quantum-to-classical transition is given in phase space based on the trace distance. The Margolus-Levitin speed limit is set by the Schatten L1 norm of the generator of time dependent evolution for both the quantum and classical domains. As an example, the time-dependent harmonic oscillator is considered to illustrate the result.
The quantum speed limit time for quantum system under squeezed environment is studied. We consider two typical models, the damped Jaynes-Cummings model and the dephasing model. For the damped Jaynes-Cummings model under squeezed environment, we find that the quantum speed limit time becomes larger with the squeezed parameter $r$ increasing and indicates symmetry about the phase parameter value $θ=π$. Meanwhile, the quantum speed limit time can also be influenced by the coupling strength between the system and environment. However, the quantum speed limit time for the dephasing model is determi…
Conventional quantum speed limits perform poorly for mixed quantum states: They are generally not tight and often significantly underestimate the fastest possible evolution speed. To remedy this, for unitary driving, we derive two quantum speed limits that outperform the traditional bounds for almost all quantum states. Moreover, our bounds are significantly simpler to compute as well as experimentally more accessible. Our bounds have a clear geometric interpretation; they arise from the evaluation of the angle between generalized Bloch vectors.
The quantum speed limit (QSL), or the energy-time uncertainty relation, describes the fundamental maximum rate for quantum time evolution and has been regarded as being unique in quantum mechanics. In this study, we obtain a classical speed limit corresponding to the QSL using the Hilbert space for the classical Liouville equation. Thus, classical mechanics has a fundamental speed limit, and QSL is not a purely quantum phenomenon but a universal dynamical property of the Hilbert space. Furthermore, we obtain similar speed limits for the imaginary-time Schroedinger equations such as the master …
The quantum speed limit (QSL), or the energy-time uncertainty relation, gives a fundamental speed limit for quantum dynamics. Recently, Kieu [arXiv:1702.00603] derived a new class of QSL which is not only formal but also suitable for actually evaluating the speed limit. Inspired by his work, we obtain a similar speed limit for the imaginary-time Schrödinger equation. Using this new bound, we show that the optimal computational time of the Grover problem in imaginary-time quantum annealing is bounded from below by $\log N$, which is consistent with a result of previous study.
In recent letter [Phys. Rev. Lett {\bf 121}, 070601 (2018), arXiv:1802.06554], the speed limit for classical stochastic Markov processes is considered, and a trade-off inequality between the speed of the state transformation and the entropy production is given. In this comment, a more accurate inequality will be presented.
Optimal control theory is a promising candidate for a drastic improvement of the performance of quantum information tasks. We explore its ultimate limit in paradigmatic cases, and demonstrate that it coincides with the maximum speed limit allowed by quantum evolution (the quantum speed limit).
In this study, we investigate the bound on the speed of state transformation in the quantum and classical systems that are coupled to general environment with arbitrary coupling interactions. We show that a Mandelstam-Tamm type speed limit exists and energy fluctuation still plays a crucial role in this speed limit inequality for open quantum systems. The energy fluctuation of the target system in addition to the coupling to the environment is key in the inequality. We also present the classical version of the speed limit for open systems. As potential applications of the proposed speed limit …
The presence of noise or the interaction with an environment can radically change the dynamics of observables of an otherwise isolated quantum system. We derive a bound on the speed with which observables of open quantum systems evolve. This speed limit divides into Mandalestam and Tamm's original time-energy uncertainty relation and a time-information uncertainty relation recently derived for classical systems, generalizing both to open quantum systems. By isolating the coherent and incoherent contributions to the system dynamics, we derive both lower and upper bounds to the speed of evolutio…
The quantum speed limit indicates the maximal evolution speed of the quantum system. In this work, we determine speed limits on the informational measures, namely the von Neumann entropy, maximal information, and coherence of quantum systems evolving under dynamical processes. These speed limits ascertain the fundamental limitations on the evolution time required by the quantum systems for the changes in their informational measures. Erasing of quantum information to reset the memory for future use is crucial for quantum computing devices. We use the speed limit on the maximal information to o…
Quantum speed limits are rigorous estimates on how fast a state of a quantum system can depart from the initial state in the course of quantum evolution. Most known quantum speed limits, including the celebrated Mandelstam-Tamm and Margolus-Levitin ones, are general bounds applicable to arbitrary initial states. However, when applied to mixed states of many-body systems, they, as a rule, dramatically overestimate the speed of quantum evolution and fail to provide meaningful bounds in the thermodynamic limit. Here we derive a quantum speed limit for a closed system initially prepared in a therm…
One often needs to estimate how fast an evolving state of a quantum system can depart from some target state or target subspace of a Hilbert space. Such estimates are known as quantum speed limits. We derive a quantum speed limit for a general time-dependent target subspace. When the target subspace is an instantaneous invariant subspace of a time-dependent Hamiltonian, the obtained quantum speed limit bounds the adiabatic fidelity, which is a figure of merit of quantum adiabaticity. We also compare two states evolving under two different Hamiltonians and derive a bound on the Loschmidt echo.
Quantum mechanics imposes a fundamental bound on the minimum time required for the quantum systems to evolve between two states of interest. This bound introduces a limit on the speed of the dynamical evolution of the systems, known as the quantum speed limit. We show that black holes can drastically affect the speed limit of a two-level fermionic quantum system subjected to an open quantum dynamics. As we demonstrate, the quantum speed limit can enhance at the vicinity of a black hole's event horizon in the Schwarzschild spacetime.
Speed of state transitions in macroscopic systems is a crucial concept for foundations of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics as well as various applications in quantum technology represented by optimal quantum control. While extensive studies have made efforts to obtain rigorous constraints on dynamical processes since Mandelstam and Tamm, speed limits that provide tight bounds for macroscopic transitions have remained elusive. Here, by employing the local conservation law of probability, the fundamental principle in physics, we develop a general framework for deriving qualitatively tighter …
