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arXiv:0905.4760

A category theoretic approach to asymptotic quantum channel approximation and Birkhoff's Theorem

Ian T. Durham

Published May 28, 2009• 0 citations
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Abstract

Birkhoff's Theorem states that doubly stochastic matrices are convex combinations of permutation matrices. Quantum mechanically these matrices are doubly stochastic channels, i.e. they are completely positive maps preserving both the trace and the identity. We expect these channels to be convex combinations of unitary channels and yet it is known that some channels cannot be written that way. Recent work has suggested that $n$ copies of a single channel might approximate a mixture (convex combination) of unitaries. In this paper we show that $n(n+1)/2$ copies of a symmetric unital quantum channel may be arbitrarily-well approximated by a mixture (convex combination) of unitarily implemented channels. In addition, we prove that any extremal properties of a channel are preserved over $n$ (and thus $n(n+1)/2$) copies. The result has the potential to be completely generalized to include non-symmetric channels.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.0905.4760

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Birkhoff's Theorem states that doubly stochastic matrices are convex combinations of permutation matrices. Quantum mechanically these matrices are doubly stochastic channels, i.e. they are completely positive maps preserving both the trace and the identity. We expect these channels to be convex combinations of unitary channels and yet it is known that some channels cannot be written that way. Recent work has suggested that nnn copies of a single channel might approximate a mixture (convex combination) of unitaries. In this paper we show that n(n+1)/2n(n+1)/2n(n+1)/2 copies of a symmetric unital quantum channel may be arbitrarily-well approximated by a mixture (convex combination) of unitarily implemented channels. In addition, we prove that any extremal properties of a channel are preserved over nnn (and thus n(n+1)/2n(n+1)/2n(n+1)/2) copies. The result has the potential to be completely generalized to include non-symmetric channels.
The set of doubly-stochastic quantum channels and its subset of mixtures of unitaries are investigated. We provide a detailed analysis of their structure together with computable criteria for the separation of the two sets. When applied to O ( d )-covariant channels this leads to a complete characterization and reveals a remarkable feature: instances of channels which are not in the convex hull of unitaries can become elements of this set by either taking two copies of them or supplementing with a completely depolarizing channel. These scenarios imply that a channel whose noise initially resists any environment-assisted attempt of correction can become perfectly correctable.
Quantum magic squares are generalizations of doubly stochastic matrices to arbitrary, possibly non-commutative algebras, more specifically C∗-algebras. Birkhoff-von Neumann Theorem states that every doubly stochastic matrix is a convex combination of permutation matrices. One inevitable question is whether a quantum magic square is a convex combinations of quantum permutation matrices. It has been proven by Cuevas, Drescher, and Netzer that the generalization of the Birkhoff-von Neumann Theorem in the quantum setting is not true in general. A quantum magic square is a convex combination of Arveson extreme points but not necessarily a convex combination of quantum permutation matrices. Additionally, the relationships between different subsets of quantum magic squares, including their inclusion properties, have been studied in this context.
There is a long history of representing a quantum state using a quasi-probability distribution: a distribution allowing negative values. In this paper we extend such representations to deal with quantum channels. The result is a convex, strongly monoidal, functorial embedding of the category of trace preserving completely positive maps into the category of quasi-stochastic matrices. This establishes quantum theory as a subcategory of quasi-stochastic processes. Such an embedding is induced by a choice of minimal informationally complete POVM's. We show that any two such embeddings are naturally isomorphic. The embedding preserves the dagger structure of the categories if and only if the POVM's are symmetric, giving a new use of SIC-POVM's, objects that are of foundational interest in the QBism community. We also study general convex embeddings of quantum theory and prove a dichotomy that such an embedding is either trivial or faithful.
Abstract We establish an operator algebra generalization of Watrous’ theorem (Watrous 2009 Quantum Inf. Comput. 9 403–413) on mixing unital quantum channels (completely positive trace-preserving maps) with the completely depolarizing channel, wherein the more general objects of focus become (finite-dimensional) von Neumann algebras, the unique trace preserving conditional expectation onto the algebra, the group of unitary operators in the commutant of the algebra, and the fixed point algebra of the channel. As an application, we obtain a result on the asymptotic theory of quantum channels, showing that all unital channels are eventually mixed unitary. We also discuss the special case of the diagonal algebra in detail, and draw connections to the theory of correlation matrices and Schur product maps.
Quantum measurements can be interpreted as a generalization of probability vectors, in which non-negative real numbers are replaced by positive semi-definite operators. We extrapolate this analogy to define a generalization of doubly stochastic matrices that we call doubly normalized tensors (DNTs), and investigate a corresponding version of Birkhoff–von Neumann's theorem, which states that permutations are the extremal points of the set of doubly stochastic matrices. We prove that joint measurability appears naturally as a mathematical feature of DNTs in this context and that this feature is necessary and sufficient for a characterization similar to Birkhoff–von Neumann's. Conversely, we also show that DNTs arise from a particular instance of a joint measurability problem, remarking the relevance of this quantum-theoretical property in general operator theory.