We show that a quantum control procedure on a two-level system including dissipation gives rise to a semi-group corresponding to the Lie algebra semi-direct sum gl(3,R)+R^3. The physical evolution may be modelled by the action of this semi-group on a 3-vector as it moves inside the Bloch sphere, in the Bloch ball.
For one qubit systems, we present a short, elementary argument characterizing unital quantum operators in terms of their action on Bloch vectors. We then show how our approach generalizes to multi-qubit systems, obtaining inequalities that govern when a ``diagonal'' superoperator on the Bloch region is a quantum operator. These inequalities are the n-qubit analogue of the Algoet-Fujiwara conditions. Our work is facilitated by an analysis of operator-sum decompositions in which negative summands are allowed.
We determine the set of the Bloch vectors for N-level systems, generalizing the familiar Bloch ball in 2-level systems. An origin of the structural difference from the Bloch ball in 2-level systems is clarified.
Geometric intuition is a crucial tool to obtain deeper insight into many concepts of physics. A paradigmatic example of its power is the Bloch ball, the geometrical representation for the state space of the simplest possible quantum system, a two-level system (or qubit). However, already for a three-level system (qutrit) the state space has eight dimensions, so that its complexity exceeds the grasp of our three-dimensional space of experience. This is unfortunate, given that the geometric object describing the state space of a qutrit has a much richer structure and is in many ways more represe…
1-qubit quantum states form a space called the three-dimensional Bloch ball. To compute Holevo capacity, Voronoi diagrams in the Bloch ball with respect to the quantum divergence have been used as a powerful tool. These diagrams basically treat mixed quantum states corresponding to points in the interior of the Bloch ball. Due to the existence of logarithm in the quantum divergence, the diagrams are not defined on pure quantum states corresponding to points on the two-dimensional sphere. This paper first defines the Voronoi diagrams for pure quantum states on the Bloch sphere by the Fubini-Stu…
We analyse a laser assisted sympathetic cooling scheme for atoms within the lowest Bloch band of an optical lattice. This scheme borrows ideas from sub-recoil laser cooling, implementing them in a new context in which the atoms in the lattice are coupled to a BEC reservoir. In this scheme, excitation of atoms between Bloch bands replaces the internal structure of atoms in normal laser cooling, and spontaneous emission of photons is replaced by creation of excitations in the BEC reservoir. We analyse the cooling process for many bosons and fermions, and obtain possible temperatures correspondin…
Optimal state transfer of a single two-level system (TLS) coupled to an Ohmic boson bath via off-diagonal TLS-bath coupling is studied by using optimal control theory. In the weak system-bath coupling regime where the time-dependent Bloch-Redfield formalism is applicable, we obtain the Bloch equation to probe the evolution of the dissipative TLS in the presence of a time-dependent external control field. By using the automatic differentiation technique to compute the gradient for the cost functional, we calculate the optimal transfer integral profile that can achieve an ideal transfer within a…
The engineering of synthetic dimensions allows for the construction of fictitious lattice structures by coupling the discrete degrees of freedom of a physical system, such as the quantized modes of an electromagnetic cavity or the internal states of an atom. This method enables the study of static and dynamical Bloch band properties in the absence of a real periodic lattice structure. So far, the vast majority of implementations have focused on linear and conservative processes, with the potentially rich physics and opportunities offered by nonlinearities and dissipation remaining largely unex…
We consider a very natural generalization of quantum theory by letting the dimension of the Bloch ball be not necessarily three. We analyze bipartite state spaces where each of the components has a d-dimensional Euclidean ball as state space. In addition to this we impose two very natural assumptions: the continuity and reversibility of dynamics, and the possibility of characterizing bipartite states by local measurements. We classify all these bipartite state spaces and prove that, except for the quantum two-qubit state space, none of them contains entangled states. Equivalently, in any of th…
Three unit spheres were used to represent the two-qubit pure states. The three spheres are named the base sphere, entanglement sphere, and fiber sphere. The base sphere and entanglement sphere represent the reduced density matrix of the base qubit and the non-local entanglement measure, concurrence, while the fiber sphere represents the fiber qubit via a simple rotation under a local single-qubit unitary operation; however, in an entangled bipartite state, the fiber sphere has no information on the reduced density matrix of the fiber qubit. When the bipartite state becomes separable, the base …
Using the convex optimization method and Helstrom family of ensembles introduced in Ref. [1], we have discussed optimal ambiguous discrimination in qubit systems. We have analyzed the problem of the optimal discrimination of N known quantum states and have obtained maximum success probability and optimal measurement for N known quantum states with equiprobable prior probabilities and equidistant from center of the Bloch ball, not all of which are on the one half of the Bloch ball and all of the conjugate states are pure. An exact solution has also been given for arbitrary three known quantum s…
We experimentally investigate a discrete time quantum walk in a system of coupled fiber loops and observe typical phenomena known from the wave propagation in periodic structures as ballistic spreading or an oscillation between two internal quantum states similar to Zitterbewegung (trembling motion). If a position-dependent phase gradient is applied we find localization and Bloch oscillations of the field for moderate as well as Landau-Zener tunneling for strong phase gradients.
Quantum theory and relativity are the pillar theories on which our understanding of physics is based. Poincaré invariance is a fundamental physical principle stating that the experimental results must be the same in all inertial reference frames in Minkowski spacetime. It is a basic condition imposed on quantum theory in order to construct quantum field theories, hence, it plays a fundamental role in the standard model of particle physics too. As is well known, Minkowski spacetime follows from clear physical principles, like the relativity principle and the invariance of the speed of light. He…
This paper studies the quantum dynamics of a charged particle in a 2D square lattice, under the influence of electric and magnetic fields, the former being aligned with one of the lattice axes and the latter perpendicular to the lattice plane. While in free space these dynamics consist of uniform motions in the direction orthogonal to the electric field vector, we find that, in a lattice, this directed drift takes place only for specific initial conditions and for electric field magnitudes smaller than a critical value. Otherwise, the quantum wave--packet spreads ballistically in both directio…
A comparison of different master equations for driven-dissipative dynamics in composite quantum systems: Dispersive readout in structured electromagnetic environments
For both unitary and open qubit dynamics, we compare asymmetry monotone-based bounds on the minimal time required for an initial qubit state to evolve to a final qubit state from which it is probabilistically distinguishable with fixed minimal error probability (i.e., the minimal error distinguishability time). For the case of unitary dynamics generated by a time-independent Hamiltonian, we derive a necessary and sufficient condition on two asymmetry monotones that guarantees that an arbitrary state of a two-level quantum system or a separable state of $N$ two-level quantum systems will unitar…
We present a method to perform a variational analysis of the quantum master equation for driven-disspative bosonic fields with arbitrary large occupation numbers. Our approach combines the P representation of the density matrix and the variational principle for open quantum system. We benchmark the method by comparing it to wave-function Monte-Carlo simulations and the solution of the Maxwell-Bloch equation for the Jaynes-Cummings model. Furthermore, we study a model describing Rydberg polaritons in a cavity field and introduce an additional set of variational paramaters to describe correlatio…
The computational efficiency of quantum mechanics can be defined in terms of the qubit circuit model, which is characterized by a few simple properties: each computational gate is a reversible transformation in a connected matrix group; single wires carry quantum bits, i.e. states of a three-dimensional Bloch ball; states on two or more wires are uniquely determined by local measurement statistics and their correlations. In this paper, we ask whether other types of computation are possible if we relax one of those characteristics (and keep all others), namely, if we allow wires to be described…
We investigate the open dynamics of a probe qubit weakly interacting with distinct qubit environments bearing quantum information. We show that the proposed dissipative model yields a binary classification of the reservoir qubits' quantum information in the steady state in the Bloch qubit parameter space, depending on the coupling rates. To describe the dissipation model dynamics, we have adopted the collision model, in which the input information parameters of the reservoir qubits are easily determined. We develop a generalized classification rule based on the results of the micromaser-like m…
The article considers a two-level open quantum system, whose evolution is governed by the Gorini--Kossakowski--Lindblad--Sudarshan master equation with Hamiltonian and dissipation superoperator depending, correspondingly, on piecewise constant coherent and incoherent controls with constrained magnitudes. Additional constraints on controls' variations are also considered. The system is analyzed using Bloch parametrization of the system's density matrix. We adapt the section method for obtaining outer parallelepipedal and pointwise estimations of reachable and controllability sets in the Bloch b…
We suggest to employ the dissipative nature of open quantum systems for the purpose of parameter estimation: The dynamics of open quantum systems is typically described by a quantum dynamical semigroup generator ${\cal L}$. The eigenvalues of ${\cal L}$ are complex, reflecting unitary as well as dissipative dynamics. For certain values of parameters defining ${\cal L}$, non-hermitian degeneracies emerge, i.e. exceptional points ($EP$). The dynamical signature of these $EP$s corresponds to a unique time evolution. This unique feature can be employed experimentally to locate the $EP$s and thereb…
Cooperative control and geometric amplification in dissipative quantum systems
Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems(马克斯·普朗克复杂系统物理研究所);Università di Parma(帕尔马大学);INFN, Sezione di Milano Bicocca, Gruppo Collegato di Parma(意大利国家核物理研究所,米兰比科卡分部,帕尔马协作组);Laboratoire Collisions Agrégats Réactivité, IRSAMC, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS(碰撞与聚集反应实验室,IRSAMC,图卢兹大学,法国国家科学研究中心,图卢兹第三大学)
We study a realistic model for driven qubits using the numerical solution of the Bloch-Redfield equation as well as analytical approximations using a high-frequency scheme. Unlike in idealized rotating-wave models suitable for NMR or quantum optics, we study a driving term which neither is orthogonal to the static term nor leaves the adiabatic energy value constant. We investigate the underlying dynamics and analyze the spectroscopy peaks obtained in recent experiments. We show, that unlike in the rotating-wave case, this system exhibits nonlinear driving effects.We study the width of spectros…
Physical constraints such as positivity endow the set of quantum states with a rich geometry if the system dimension is greater than two. To shed some light on the complicated structure of the set of quantum states, we consider a stratification with strata given by unitary orbit manifolds, which can be identified with flag manifolds. The results are applied to study the geometry of the coherence vector for n-level quantum systems. It is shown that the unitary orbits can be naturally identified with spheres in R^{n^2-1} only for n=2. In higher dimensions the coherence vector only defines a non-…
We have studied the dissipative dynamics of a solid-state qubit with an extra electron confined to either one of two coupled quantum dots. Previous theoretical work based on Bloch-type rate equations gave an unphysical uniform occupation probability of the electron in the quantum dots even for non-identical dots. We show that this is due to neglecting higher order interactions in the analysis. By including higher order terms, we obtain expected asymmetric occupation probabilities for non-identical dots. Our work demonstrates that the high order interaction terms can lead to important qualitati…
We consider a qubit coupled to a nonlinear quantum oscillator, the latter coupled to an Ohmic bath, and investigate the qubit dynamics. This composed system can be mapped onto that of a qubit coupled to an effective bath. An approximate mapping procedure to determine the spectral density of the effective bath is given. Specifically, within a linear response approximation the effective spectral density is given by the knowledge of the linear susceptibility of the nonlinear quantum oscillator. To determine the actual form of the susceptibility, we consider its periodically driven counterpart, th…
The dissipative dynamics of a two-qubit system is studied theoretically. We make use of the Bloch-Redfield formalism which explicitly includes the parameter-dependent relaxation rates. We consider the case of two flux qubits, when the controlling parameters are the partial magnetic fluxes through the qubits' loops. The strong dependence of the inter-level relaxation rates on the controlling magnetic fluxes is demonstrated for the realistic system. This allows us to propose several mechanisms for lasing in this four-level system.
We study the dynamics of a two-level system described by a slowly varying Hamiltonian and weakly coupled to the Ohmic environment. We follow the Bloch--Redfield perturbative approach to include the effect of the environment on qubit evolution and take into account modification of the spectrum and matrix elements of qubit transitions due to time-dependence of the Hamiltonian. This formalism is applied to two problems. (1) We consider a qubit, or a spin-1/2, in a rotating magnetic field. We show that once the rotation starts, the spin has a component perpendicular to the rotation plane of the fi…
Quantum walks are processes that model dynamics in coherent systems. Their experimental implementations proved key to unveil novel phenomena in Floquet topological insulators. Here we realize a photonic quantum walk in the presence of a synthetic gauge field, which mimics the action of an electric field on a charged particle. By tuning the energy gaps between the two quasi-energy bands, we investigate intriguing system dynamics characterized by the interplay between Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener transitions. When both gaps at quasi-energy values 0 and $π$ are vanishingly small, the Floqu…
The dynamics of two variants of quantum Fisher information under decoherence are investigated from a geometrical point of view. We first derive the explicit formulas of these two quantities for a single qubit in terms of the Bloch vector. Moreover, we obtain analytical results for them under three different decoherence channels, which are expressed as affine transformation matrices. Using the hierarchy equation method, we numerically study the dynamics of both the two information in a dissipative model and compare the numerical results with the analytical ones obtained by applying the rotating…
Milz and Strunz recently reported substantial evidence to further support the previously conjectured separability probability of $\frac{8}{33}$ for two-qubit systems ($ρ$) endowed with Hilbert-Schmidt measure. Additionally, they found that along the radius ($r$) of the Bloch ball representing either of the two single-qubit subsystems, this value appeared constant (but jumping to unity at the locus of the pure states, $r=1$). Further, they also observed (personal communication) such separability probability $r$-invariance, when using, more broadly, random induced measure ($K=3,4,5,\ldots$), wit…
We present a theoretical treatment for the dissipative two-resonator circuit quantum electrodynamics setup referred to as quantum switch. There, switchable coupling between two superconducting resonators is mediated by a superconducting qubit operating in the dispersive regime, where the qubit transition frequency is far detuned from those of the resonators. We derive an effective Hamiltonian for the quantum switch beyond the rotating wave approximation and study the dissipative dynamics within a Bloch-Redfield quantum master equation approach. We derive analytically how the qubit affects the …
Atomic arrays provide an important quantum optical platform with photon-mediated dipoledipole interactions, which can be engineered to realize key applications in quantum information processing. A major obstacle for such application is the fast decay of the excited states. By controlling two-band Bloch oscillations in an atomic array under external magnetic field, here we show that exotic subradiance can be realized and maintained at a time scale upto 12 orders of magnitude larger than the spontaneous decay time in atomic arrays with the finite size. The key finding is to show a way for preven…
We analyze the static and dynamical properties of two Ising-coupled quantum spins embedded in a common bosonic bath as an archetype of dissipative quantum mechanics. First, we elucidate the ground state phase diagram for an ohmic and a subohmic bath using a combination of bosonic numerical renormalization group (NRG), analytical techniques and intuitive arguments. Second, employing the time-dependent NRG we investigate the system's rich dynamical behavior arising from the complex interplay between spin-spin and spin-bath interactions. Interestingly, spin oscillations can synchronize due to the…
Fundamental limits on state preparation for an open qubit
Lomonosov Moscow State University(莫斯科国立罗蒙诺索夫大学);Steklov Mathematical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences(俄罗斯科学院斯捷克洛夫数学研究所);National Research University Higher School of Economics(国立高等经济大学)
We study the dissipative dynamics of a two-level system (TLS) exposed to strong ac driving. By combing Floquet theory with Van Vleck perturbation theory in the TLS tunneling matrix element, we diagonalize the time-dependent Hamiltonian and provide corrections to the renormalized Rabi frequency of the TLS, which are valid for both a biased and unbiased TLS and go beyond the known high-frequency and rotating-wave results. In order to mimic environmental influences on the TLS, we couple the system weakly to a thermal bath and solve analytically the corresponding Floquet-Bloch-Redfield master equa…
We present a multi-level quantum theory of decoherence for a general circuit realization of a superconducting qubit. Using electrical network graph theory, we derive a Hamiltonian for the circuit. The dissipative circuit elements (external impedances, shunt resistors) are described using the Caldeira-Leggett model. The master equation for the superconducting phases in the Born-Markov approximation is derived and brought into the Bloch-Redfield form in order to describe multi-level dissipative quantum dynamics of the circuit. The model takes into account leakage effects, i.e. transitions from t…
We study the scrambling of local quantum information in chaotic many-body systems in the presence of a locally conserved quantity like charge or energy that moves diffusively. The interplay between conservation laws and scrambling sheds light on the mechanism by which unitary quantum dynamics, which is reversible, gives rise to diffusive hydrodynamics, which is a dissipative process. We obtain our results in a random quantum circuit model that is constrained to have a conservation law. We find that a generic spreading operator consists of two parts: (i) a conserved part which comprises the wei…
We provide an extensive study of the sub-ohmic spin-boson model with power law density of states J(ω)=ω^s (with 0<s<1), focusing on the equilibrium dynamics of the three possible spin components, from very weak dissipation to the quantum critical regime. Two complementary methods, the bosonic Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG) and Majorana diagrammatics, are used to explore the physical properties in a wide range of parameters. We show that the bosonic self-energy is the crucial ingredient for the description of critical fluctuations, but that many-body vertex corrections need to be incorpo…