To avoid the computational burden of many-body quantum simulation, the interaction of an electron with a photon (phonon) is typically accounted for by disregarding the explicit simulation of the photon (phonon) degree of freedom and just modelling its effect on the electron dynamics. For quantum models developed from the (reduced) density matrix or its Wigner-Weyl transformation, the modelling of collisions may violate complete positivity (precluding the typical probabilistic interpretation). In this paper, we show that such quantum transport models can also strongly violate the energy conservation in the electron-photon (electron-phonon) interactions. After comparing collisions models to exact results for an electron interacting with a photon, we conclude that there is no fundamental restriction that prevents a collision model developed within the (reduced) density matrix or Wigner formalisms to satisfy simultaneously complete positivity and energy conservation. However, at the practical level, the development of such satisfactory collision model seems very complicated. Collision models with an explicit knowledge of the microscopic state ascribed to each electron seems recommendable, since they allow to model collisions of each electron individually in a controlled way satisfying both conditions.
The Wigner function shares several properties with classical distribution functions on phase space, but is not positive-definite. The integral of the Wigner function over a given region of phase space can therefore lie outside the interval [0,1]. The problem of finding best-possible upper and lower bounds for a given region is the problem of finding the greatest and least eigenvalues of an associated Hermitian operator. Exactly solvable examples are described, and possible extensions are indicated.
We discuss the case of a Markovian master equation for an open system, as it is frequently found from environmental decoherence. We prove two theorems for the evolution of the quantum state. The first one states that for a generic initial state the corresponding Wigner function becomes strictly positive after a finite time has elapsed. The second one states that also the P-function becomes exactly positive after a decoherence time of the same order. Therefore the density matrix becomes exactly decomposable into a mixture of Gaussian pointer states.
The Wigner-Araki-Yanase (WAY) theorem shows that additive conservation laws limit the accuracy of measurements. Recently, various quantitative expressions have been found for quantum limits on measurements induced by additive conservation laws, and have been applied to the study of fundamental limits on quantum information processing. Here, we investigate generalizations of the WAY theorem to multiplicative conservation laws. The WAY theorem is extended to show that an observable not commuting with the modulus of, or equivalently the square of, a multiplicatively conserved quantity cannot be p…
We investigate the relationship between two properties of quantum transformations often studied in popular subtheories of quantum theory: covariance of the Wigner representation of the theory and the existence of a transformation noncontextual ontological model of the theory. We consider subtheories of quantum theory specified by a set of states, measurements and transformations, defined specifying a group of unitaries, that map between states (and measurements) within the subtheory. We show that if there exists a Wigner representation of the subtheory which is covariant under the group of uni…
We derive simple formulas connecting the generalized Wigner functions for $s$-ordering with the density matrix, and vice-versa. These formulas proved very useful for quantum mechanical applications, as, for example, for connecting master equations with Fokker-Planck equations, or for evaluating the quantum state from Monte Carlo simulations of Fokker-Planck equations, and finally for studying positivity of the generalized Wigner functions in the complex plane.
We study a generalization of the Wigner function to arbitrary tuples of hermitian operators, which is a distribution uniquely characterized by the property that the marginals for all linear combinations of the given operators agree with the quantum mechanical distributions. Its role as a joint quasi-probability distribution is underlined by the property that its support always lies in the set of expectation value tuples of the operators. We characterize the set of singularities and positivity, and provide some basic examples.
A coarse grained Wigner distribution p_{W}(x,u) obeying positivity derives out of information-theoretic considerations. Let p(x,u) be the unknown joint PDF (probability density function) on position- and momentum fluctuations x,u for a pure state particle. Suppose that the phase part Psi(x,z) of its Fourier transform F.T.[p(x,u)]=|Z(x,z)|exp[iPsi(x,z)] is constructed as a hologram. (Such a hologram is often used in heterodyne interferometry.) Consider a particle randomly illuminating this phase hologram. Let its two position coordinates be measured. Require that the measurements contain an ext…
We study a generalization of the Wigner function to arbitrary tuples of hermitian operators. We show that for any collection of hermitian operators A1...An , and any quantum state there is a unique joint distribution on R^n, with the property that the marginals of all linear combinations of the operators coincide with their quantum counterpart. In other words, we consider the inverse Radon transform of the exact quantum probability distributions of all linear combinations. We call it the Wigner distribution, because for position and momentum this property defines the standard Wigner function. …
The Wigner function's behavior of accelerated and non-accelerated Greenberger Horne Zeilinger (GHZ) state is discussed. For the non-accelerated GHZ state, the minimum/maximum peaks of the Wigner function depends on the distribution's angles, where they are displayed regularly at fixed values of the distribution's angles. We show that, for the accelerated GHZ state, the minimum bounds increases as the acceleration increases. The increasing rate depends on the number of accelerated qubits. Due to the positivity/ negativity behavior of the Wigner function, one can use it as an indicators of the p…
We show that quantum circuits where the initial state and all the following quantum operations can be represented by positive Wigner functions can be classically efficiently simulated. This is true both for continuous-variable as well as discrete variable systems in odd prime dimensions, two cases which will be treated on entirely the same footing. Noting the fact that Clifford and Gaussian operations preserve the positivity of the Wigner function, our result generalizes the Gottesman-Knill theorem. Our algorithm provides a way of sampling from the output distribution of a computation or a sim…
The uncertainty relation between the noise operator and the conserved quantity leads to a bound for the accuracy of general measurements. The bound extends the assertion by Wigner, Araki, and Yanase that conservation laws limit the accuracy of ``repeatable'', or ``nondisturbing'', measurements to general measurements, and improves the one previously obtained by Yanase for spin measurements. The bound also sets an obstacle to making a small quantum computer.
We present a filtered backprojection algorithm for reconstructing the Wigner function of a system of large angular momentum j from Stern-Gerlach-type measurements. Our method is advantageous over the full determination of the density matrix in that it is insensitive to experimental fluctuations in j, and allows for a natural elimination of high-frequency noise in the Wigner function by taking into account the experimental uncertainties in the determination of j, its projection m, and the quantization axis orientation. No data binning and no arbitrary smoothing parameters are necessary in this …
A quantitative extension of the Wigner-Araki-Yanase theorem is obtained on the limitation on precise, non-disturbing measurements of observables which do not commute with additive conserved quantities, and applied to obtaining a limitation on the accuracy of quantum computing with computational bases which do not commute with angular momentum.
The ability to measure every quantum observable is ensured by a fundamental result in quantum measurement theory. Nevertheless, additive conservation laws associated with physical symmetries, such as the angular momentum conservation, may lead to restrictions on the measurability of the observables. Such limitations are imposed by the theorem of Wigner, Araki and Yanase (WAY). In this paper a new formulation of the WAY-theorem is presented rephrasing the measurability limitations in terms of quantum incompatibility. This broader mathematical basis enables us to both capture and generalise the …
Quantum correlations of observables for two particle states have demonstrated the nonlocal character of the quantum mechanics. However nonlocality can be exhibited even for noncommuting observables of a single particle system. In this paper we show nonlocality of position-momentum correlations of a single particle in the double-slit experiment modeled by an initially correlated Gaussian wavepacket. The positivity or negativity of the Wigner function for the state of the particle at the detection screen is related with the $σ_{xp}$ covariances. A Bell's inequality is constructed from the Wigner…
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, exemplified by the gamma ray thought experiment, suggests that any finite precision measurement disturbs any observables noncommuting with the measured observable. Here, it is shown that this statement contradicts the limit of the accuracy of measurements under conservation laws originally found by Wigner in 1950s, and should be modified to correctly derive the unavoidable noise caused by the conservation law induced decoherence. The obtained accuracy limit leads to an interesting conclusion that a widely accepted, but rather naive, physical encoding of qubi…
The Wigner Phase Operator (WPO) is identified as an operator valued measure (OVM) and its eigen states are obtained. An operator satisfying the canonical commutation relation with the Wigner phase operator is also constructed and this establishes a Wigner distribution based operator formalism for the Wigner Phase Distribution. The operator satisfying the canonical commutation relation with the Wigner Phase Operator valued measure (WP-OVM) is found to be not the usual number operator. We show a way to overcome the non-positivity problem of the WP-OVM by defining a positive OVM by means of a pro…
We show that, on a Hilbert space of odd dimension, the only pure states to possess a non-negative Wigner function are stabilizer states. The Clifford group is identified as the set of unitary operations which preserve positivity. The result can be seen as a discrete version of Hudson's Theorem. Hudson established that for continuous variable systems, the Wigner function of a pure state has no negative values if and only if the state is Gaussian. Turning to mixed states, it might be surmised that only convex combinations of stabilizer states give rise to non-negative Wigner distributions. We re…
There are no phase-space trajectories for anharmonic quantum systems, but Wigner's phase-space representation of quantum mechanics features Wigner current~$\bf J$. This current reveals fine details of quantum dynamics -- finer than is ordinarily thought accessible according to quantum folklore invoking Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Here, we focus on the simplest, most intuitive, and analytically accessible aspects of~$\bf J$. We investigate features of~$\bf J$ for bound states of time-reversible, weakly-anharmonic one-dimensional quantum-mechanical systems which are weakly-excited. We es…
Bell conjectured that a positive Wigner function does not allow violation of the inequalities imposed by local hidden variable theories. A requirement for this conjecture is "when phase space measurements are performed". We introduce the theory-independent concept of "operationally local transformations" which refers to the change of the switch on a local measurement apparatus. We show that two separated parties, performing only phase space measurements on a composite quantum system with a positive Wigner function and performing only operationally local transformations that preserve this posit…
For an ergodic system, the time average of a classical observable coincides with that obtained via the Liouville probability density, a delta-function on the energy shell. Reinterpreting this distribution as a Wigner function, that is, the Weyl representation of a density operator, the quantum ergodic conjecture identifies this classical construction as an approximate representation of the quantum eigenstate of the same energy. It is found that this reasonable hypothesis, as far as expectations for observables are concerned, does not satisfy the requirement of positivity, so that the delta-fun…
Classical and quantum mechanics across representations: an operational reading of the Wigner Weyl correspondence
University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics（维也纳大学物理学院）；Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology（维也纳量子科学与技术中心）；Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI), Austrian Academy of Sciences（奥地利科学院量子光学与量子信息研究所）；Constructor University（Constructor大学）；University of Geneva, Group of Applied Physics（日内瓦大学应用物理组）
In quantum optics, the quantum state of a light beam is represented through the Wigner function, a density on $\mathbb R^2$ which may take negative values but must respect intrinsic positivity constraints imposed by quantum physics. In the framework of noisy quantum homodyne tomography with efficiency parameter $1/2 < η\leq 1$, we study the theoretical performance of a kernel estimator of the Wigner function. We prove that it is minimax efficient, up to a logarithmic factor in the sample size, for the $\mathbb L_\infty$-risk over a class of infinitely differentiable. We compute also the lower …
Recently, universally valid uncertainty relations have been established to set a precision limit for any instruments given a disturbance constraint in a form more general than the one originally proposed by Heisenberg. One of them leads to a quantitative generalization of the Wigner-Araki-Yanase theorem on the precision limit of measurements under conservation laws. Applying this, a rigorous lower bound is obtained for the gate error probability of physical implementations of Hadamard gates on a standard qubit of a spin 1/2 system by interactions with control fields or ancilla systems obeying …
We consider a spin chain extending from Alice to Bob with next neighbors interactions, initially in its ground state. Assuming that Bob measures the last spin of the chain, the energy of the spin chain has to increase, at least on average, due to the measurement disturbance. Presumably, the energy is provided by Bob's measurement apparatus. Assuming now that, simultaneously to Bob's measurement, Alice measures the first spin, we show that either energy is not conserved, - implausible - or the projection postulate doesn't apply, and that there is signalling. An explicit measurement model shows …
Uncertainty relations are one of the fundamental principles in physics. It began as a fundamental limitation in quantum mechanics, and today the word {\it uncertainty relation} is a generic term for various trade-off relations in nature. In this letter, we improve the Kennard-Robertson uncertainty relation, and clarify how much coherence we need to implement quantum measurement under conservation laws. Our approach systematically improves and reproduces the previous various refinements of the Kennard-Robertson inequality. As a direct consequence of our inequalities, we improve a well-known lim…
We investigate the quantum theory of closed systems based on the linear positivity decoherence condition of Goldstein and Page. A quantum theory of closed systems requires two elements; 1) a condition specifying which sets of histories may be assigned probabilities that are consistent with the rules of probability theory, and 2) a rule for those probabilities. The linear positivity condition of Goldstein and Page is the weakest of the general conditions proposed so far. Its general properties relating to exact probability sum rules, time-neutrality, and conservation laws are explored. Its inco…
We estimate the quantum state of a light beam from results of quantum homodyne measurements performed on identically prepared quantum systems. The state is represented through the Wigner function, a generalized probability density on $\mathbb{R}^2$ which may take negative values and must respect intrinsic positivity constraints imposed by quantum physics. The effect of the losses due to detection inefficiencies, which are always present in a real experiment, is the addition to the tomographic data of independent Gaussian noise. We construct a kernel estimator for the Wigner function, prove tha…
We show that the positivity of the Wigner function of Gaussian states and measurements provides an elegant way to bound the discriminating power of "linear optics", which we formalise as Gaussian measurement operations augmented by classical (feed-forward) communication (GOCC). This allows us to reproduce and generalise the result of Takeoka and Sasaki [PRA 78:022320, 2008], which tightly characterises the GOCC norm distance of coherent states, separating it from the optimal distinguishability according to Helstrom's theorem. Furthermore, invoking ideas from classical and quantum Shannon theor…
Starting from a general relativistic kinetic equation, a self-consistent mean-field equation for fermions is derived within a covariant density matrix approach of QED plasmas in strong external fields. A Schrödinger picture formulation on space-like hyperplanes is applied. The evolution of the distribution function is described by the one-particle gauge-invariant 4x4 Wigner matrix, which is decomposed in spinor space. A coupled system of equations for the corresponding Wigner components is obtained. The polarization current is expressed in terms of the Wigner function. Charge conservation is o…
Symmetries are defined in histories-based generalized quantum mechanics paying special attention to the class of history theories admitting quasitemporal structure (a generalization of the concept of `temporal sequences' of `events' using partial semigroups) and logic structure for `single time histories'. Symmetries are classified into orthochronous (those preserving the `temporal order' of `events') and non-orthochronous. A straightforward criterion for physical equivalence of histories is formulated in terms of orthochronous symmetries; this criterion covers various notions of physical equi…
Wigner negativity and stellar rank for SU(1,1) states
Universidad de Guadalajara（瓜达拉哈拉大学）；Universidad Autónoma de Chile（智利自治大学）；Universidad Complutense（康普顿斯大学）；Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts（马克斯·普朗克光科学研究所）；Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg（埃尔朗根-纽伦堡大学）；Université Paris Cité（巴黎西岱大学）；CNRS, Astroparticule et Cosmologie（法国国家科学研究中心，天体粒子与宇宙学）；University of Białystok（比亚韦斯托克大学）；Institute for Quantum Studies, Chapman University（查普曼大学量子研究学院）
We derive upper bounds for Hilbert-Schmidt's quantum coherence of general states of a $d$-level quantum system, a qudit, in terms of its incoherent uncertainty, with the latter quantified using the linear and von Neumann's entropies of the corresponding closest incoherent state. Similar bounds are obtained for Wigner-Yanase's coherence. The reported inequalities are also given as coherence-populations trade-off relations. As an application example of these inequalities, we derive quantitative wave-particle duality relations for multi-slit interferometry. Our framework leads to the identificati…
We derive and analyze an effective quantum Boltzmann equation in the kinetic regime for the interactions of four distinguishable types of fermionic spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ particles, starting from a general quantum field Hamiltonian. Each particle type is described by a time-dependent, $2 \times 2$ spin-density ("Wigner") matrix. We show that density and energy conservation laws as well as the H-theorem hold, and enumerate additional conservation laws depending on the interaction. The conserved quantities characterize the $t \to \infty$ thermal (Fermi-Dirac) equilibrium state. We illustrate the app…
