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arXiv:0808.0175 · Physical Review Letters

Vanishing Quantum Discord is Necessary and Sufficient for Completely Positive Maps

Alireza Shabani, Daniel A. Lidar

Published Mar 11, 2009• 309 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Two long-standing open problems in quantum theory are to characterize the class of initial system-bath states for which quantum dynamics is equivalent to (i) a map between the initial and final system states, and (ii) a completely positive (CP) map. The CP map problem is especially important, due to the widespread use of such maps in quantum information processing and open quantum systems theory. Here we settle both these questions by showing that the answer to the first is "all", with the resulting map being Hermitian, and that the answer to the second is that CP maps arise exclusively from the class of separable states with vanishing quantum discord.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.102.100402

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Two long-standing open problems in quantum theory are to characterize the class of initial system-bath states for which quantum dynamics is equivalent to (i) a map between the initial and final system states, and (ii) a completely positive (CP) map. The CP map problem is especially important, due to the widespread use of such maps in quantum information processing and open quantum systems theory. Here we settle both these questions by showing that the answer to the first is "all", with the resulting map being Hermitian, and that the answer to the second is that CP maps arise exclusively from the class of separable states with vanishing quantum discord.
A system interacting with its environment will give rise to a quantum evolution. After tracing over the environment the net evolution of the system can be described by a linear Hermitian map. It has recently been shown that a necessary and sufficient condition for this evolution to be completely positive is for the initial state to have vanishing quantum discord. In this paper, we provide a sufficient condition for the map to be positive with respect to the initial system-environment correlation. This could lead to ways in which to identify positive but not completely positive maps. Illustrative examples and suggestive procedures are also provided.
The description of the dynamics of a system that may be correlated with its environment is only meaningful within the context of a specific framework. Different frameworks rely upon different assumptions about the initial system-environment state. We reexamine the connections between complete positivity and quantum discord within two different sets of assumptions about the relevant family of initial states. We present an example of a system-environment state with nonvanishing quantum discord that leads to a completely positive map. This invalidates an earlier claim about the necessity of vanishing quantum discord for completely positive maps. In our final remarks, we discuss the physical validity of each approach.
The traditional scheme for realizing open-system quantum dynamics takes the initial state of the system-bath composite as a simple product. Currently, however, the issue of system-bath initial correlations possibly affecting the reduced dynamics of the system has been attracting considerable interest. The influential work of Shabani and Lidar [PRL {\bf 102}, 100402 (2009)] famously related this issue to quantum discord, a concept which has in recent years occupied the centre-stage of quantum information theory and has led to several fundamental results. They suggested that reduced dynamics is completely positive if and only if the initial system-bath correlations have vanishing quantum discord. Here we show that there is, within the Shabani-Lidar framework, no scope for any distinguished role for quantum discord in respect of complete positivity of reduced dynamics. Since most applications of quantum theory to real systems rests on the traditional scheme, its robustness demonstrated here could be of far-reaching significance.
We investigate completely positive maps for an open system interacting with its environment. The families of the initial states for which the reduced dynamics can be described by a completely positive map are identified within the framework of direct-sum decomposition of state space. They include not only separable states with vanishing or nonvanishing quantum discord but also entangled states. A general expression of the families as well as the Kraus operators for the completely positive maps are explicitly given. It significantly extends the previous results.
We investigate the evolution of open quantum systems in the presence of initial correlations with an environment. Here the standard formalism of describing evolution by completely positive trace preserving (CPTP) quantum operations can fail and non-completely positive (non-CP) maps may be observed. A new classification of correlations between a system and environment using quantum discord is explored. However, we find quantum discord is not a symmetric quantity between exchange of systems and this leads to ambiguity in classifications - states which are both quantum and classically correlated depending on the order of the two systems. State preparation in quantum process tomography is investigated with regard to non-CP maps. In SQPT the preparation procedure can influence the complete-positivity of the reconstructed quantum operation if our system is initially correlated with an environment. We examine a recently proposed preparation procedures using projective measurements, and propose our own protocol that uses a single measurement followed by unitary rotations. The former can give rise to non-CP evolution while the later will always give rise to a CP map. State preparation in AAPT was found always to give rise to CP evolution. We examine the effect of statistical noise in process tomography and find it can result in the identification of a non-CP when the evolution should be CP. The variance of the distribution for reconstructed processes is found to be inversely proportional to the number of copies of a state used to perform tomography. Finally, we detail an experiment using currently available linear optics QC devices to demonstrate non-CP maps arising in SQPT.
We expand the set of initial states of a system and its environment that are known to guarantee completely positive reduced dynamics for the system when the combined state evolves unitarily. We characterize the correlations in the initial state in terms of its quantum discord [1]. We prove that initial states that have only classical correlations lead to completely positive reduced dynamics. The induced maps can be not completely positive when quantum correlations including, but not limited to, entanglement are present.