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arXiv:1806.08742 · Quantum

Tight, robust, and feasible quantum speed limits for open dynamics

Francesco Campaioli, Felix A. Pollock, Kavan Kishore Modi

Published Aug 5, 2019• 92 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Starting from a geometric perspective, we derive a quantum speed limit for arbitrary open quantum evolution, which could be Markovian or non-Markovian, providing a fundamental bound on the time taken for the most general quantum dynamics. Our methods rely on measuring angles and distances between (mixed) states represented as generalized Bloch vectors. We study the properties of our bound and present its form for closed and open evolution, with the latter in both Lindblad form and in terms of a memory kernel. Our speed limit is provably robust under composition and mixing, features that largely improve the effectiveness of quantum speed limits for open evolution of mixed states. We also demonstrate that our bound is easier to compute and measure than other quantum speed limits for open evolution, and that it is tighter than the previous bounds for almost all open processes. Finally, we discuss the usefulness of quantum speed limits and their impact in current research.

DOI
10.22331/q-2019-08-05-168

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Starting from a geometric perspective, we derive a quantum speed limit for arbitrary open quantum evolution, which could be Markovian or non-Markovian, providing a fundamental bound on the time taken for the most general quantum dynamics. Our methods rely on measuring angles and distances between (mixed) states represented as generalized Bloch vectors. We study the properties of our bound and present its form for closed and open evolution, with the latter in both Lindblad form and in terms of a memory kernel. Our speed limit is provably robust under composition and mixing, features that largely improve the effectiveness of quantum speed limits for open evolution of mixed states. We also demonstrate that our bound is easier to compute and measure than other quantum speed limits for open evolution, and that it is tighter than the previous bounds for almost all open processes. Finally, we discuss the usefulness of quantum speed limits and their impact in current research.
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.
Quantum speed limits describe how fast a system can evolve from one state to another. There are several well-known quantum speed limits such as the Mandelstam–Tamm and Margolus–Levitin bounds which were originally derived for pure states and are not always tight for mixed states. In this thesis a stronger bound is derived for mixed qubit states, which has been shown to be tight, by using additional information about the system. We chose to focus on a single qubit and use the Bloch representation to describe its evolution geometrically. Due to both the energy and the purity of the system being conserved under unitary time evolution, the Bloch vector moves in a circle. By expressing the fidelity between the initial and final state in terms of Bloch vectors, we can derive a stricter quantum speed limit for mixed qubit states. This new lower bound depends on both fidelity and purity and is tighter than the Margolus–Levitin bound. The result shows that taking conserved quantities like purity into account can lead to improved quantum speed limits and similar ideas might be useful for more complex systems as well.
Abstract We study theoretically the geometric quantum speed limits (QSLs) of open quantum systems under Markovian dynamical evolution. Three types of QSL time bounds are introduced based on the geometric inequality associated with the dynamical evolution from an initial state to a final state. By illustrating three types of QSL bounds at the cases of presence or absence of system driving, we demonstrate that the unitary part, dominated by system Hamiltonian, supplies the internal motivation for a Markovian evolution which deviates from its geodesic. Specifically, in the case of unsaturated QSL bounds, the parameters of the system Hamiltonian serve as the eigen-frequency of the oscillations of geodesic distance in the time domain and, on the other hand, drive a further evolution of an open quantum system in a given time period due to its significant contribution in dynamical speedup. We present physical pictures of both saturated and unsaturated QSLs of Markovian dynamics by means of the dynamical evolution trajectories in the Bloch sphere which demonstrates the significant role of system Hamiltonian even in the case of initial mixed states. It is further indicated that whether the QSL bound is saturated is ruled by the commutator between the Hamiltonian and reduced density matrix of the quantum system. Our study provides a detailed description of QSL times and reveals the effects of system Hamiltonian on the unsaturation of QSL bounds under Markovian evolution.
The minimal time a system needs to evolve from an initial state to its one orthogonal state is defined as the quantum speed limit time, which can be used to characterize the maximal speed of evolution of a quantum system. This is a fundamental question of quantum physics. We investigate the generic bound on the minimal evolution time of the open dynamical quantum system. This quantum speed limit time is applicable to both mixed and pure initial states. We then apply this result to the damped Jaynes-Cummings model and the Ohimc-like dephasing model starting from a general time-evolution state. The bound of this time-dependent state at any point in time can be found. For the damped Jaynes-Cummings model, when the system starts from the excited state, the corresponding bound first decreases and then increases in the Markovian dynamics. While in the non-Markovian regime, the speed limit time shows an interesting periodic oscillatory behavior. For the case of Ohimc-like dephasing model, this bound would be gradually trapped to a fixed value. In addition, the roles of the relativistic effects on the speed limit time for the observer in non-inertial frames are discussed.
We develop an intuitive geometric picture of quantum states, define a particular state distance, and derive a quantum speed limit (QSL) for open systems. Our QSL is attainable because any initial state can be driven to a final state by the particular dynamics along the geodesic. We present the general condition for dynamics along the geodesic for our QSL. As evidence, we consider the generalized amplitude damping dynamics and the dephasing dynamics to demonstrate the attainability. In addition, we also compare our QSL with others by strict analytic processes as well as numerical illustrations, and show our QSL is tight in many cases. It indicates that our paper is significant in tightening the bound of evolution time.
We derive an easily computable quantum speed limit (QSL) time bound for open systems whose initial states can be chosen as either pure or mixed states. Moreover, this QSL time is applicable to either Markovian or non-Markovian dynamics. By using of a hierarchy equation method, we numerically study the QSL time bound in a qubit system interacting with a single broadened cavity mode without rotating-wave, Born and Markovian approximation. By comparing with rotating-wave approximation (RWA) results, we show that the counter-rotating terms are helpful to increase evolution speed. The problem of non-Markovianity is also considered. We find that for non-RWA cases, increasing system-bath coupling can not always enhance the non-Markovianity, which is qualitatively different from the results with RWA. When considering the relation between QSL and non-Markovianity, we find that for small broadening widths of the cavity mode, non-Markovianity can increase the evolution speed in either RWA or non-RWA cases, while, for larger broadening widths, it is not true for non-RWA cases.