The quantum speed limit (QSL), or the energy-time uncertainty relation, gives a fundamental speed limit for quantum dynamics. Recently, Kieu [arXiv:1702.00603] derived a new class of QSL which is not only formal but also suitable for actually evaluating the speed limit. Inspired by his work, we obtain a similar speed limit for the imaginary-time Schrödinger equation. Using this new bound, we show that the optimal computational time of the Grover problem in imaginary-time quantum annealing is bounded from below by $\log N$, which is consistent with a result of previous study.
The quantum speed limit (QSL), or the energy-time uncertainty relation, gives a fundamental speed limit for quantum dynamics. Recently, Kieu [arXiv:1702.00603] derived a new class of QSL which is not only formal but also suitable for actually evaluating the speed limit. Inspired by his work, we obtain a similar speed limit for the imaginary-time Schrödinger equation. Using this new bound, we show that the optimal computational time of the Grover problem in imaginary-time quantum annealing is bounded from below by logN, which is consistent with a result of previous study.
Recently, Okuyama and Ohzek [1] derived a speed limit for the imaginary-time Schrödinger equation, which is inspired by the prior work of Kieu, who had shown a new class of time–energy uncertainty relations suitable for actually evaluating the speed limit of quantum dynamics. In this paper, we apply the result of Okuyama and Ohzek to obtain a generalized speed limit for Grover’s search in imaginary-time quantum annealing. An estimate of the lower bound on the computational time is shown, from which the role of the coefficient function corresponding to the final Hamiltonian played in the quantum dynamics for the problem is sticking out. However, when trying to apply the speed limit to the analogue of Grover’s problem, we find that not only the coefficient of the target Hamiltonian is related to the time complexity of the algorithm, but also the coefficient of the initial Hamiltonian is crucial for determining the time complexity. This is new and generalizes one of the results in our previous work.
Recently, Kieu proposed a new class of time-energy uncertainty relations for time-dependent Hamiltonians, which is not only formal but also useful for actually evaluating the speed limit of quantum dynamics. Inspired by this work, Okuyama and Ohzeki obtained a similar speed limit for the imaginary-time Schrödinger equation. In this paper, we refine the latter one to make it be further like that of Kieu formally. As in the work of Kieu, only the initial states and the Hamiltonians, but neither the instantaneous eigenstates nor the full time-dependent wave like functions, which would demand a full solution for a time-dependent system, are required for our optimized speed limit. It turns out to be more helpful for estimating the speed limit of an actual quantum annealing driven by the imaginary-time Schrödinger equation. For certain case, the refined speed limit given here becomes the only useful tool to do this estimation, because the one given by Okuyama and Ohzeki cannot do the same job.
We present the analog analogue of Grover’s problem as an example of the time-independent Hamiltonian for applying the speed limit of the imaginary-time Schrödinger equation derived by Okuyama and Ohzeki and the new class of energy-time uncertainty relation proposed by Kieu. It is found that the computational time of the imaginary-time quantum annealing of this Grover search can be exponentially small, while the counterpart of the quantum evolution driven by the real-time Schrödinger equation could only provide square root speedup, compared with classic search. The present results are consistent with the cases of the time-dependent quantum evolution of the natural Grover problem in previous works. We once again emphasize that the logarithm and square root algorithmic performances are generic in imaginary-time quantum annealing and quantum evolution driven by real-time Schrödinger equation, respectively. Also, we provide evidences to search deep reasons why the imaginary-time quantum annealing can lead to exponential speedup and the real-time quantum annealing can make square root speedup.
The quantum speed limit (QSL), or the energy-time uncertainty relation, describes the fundamental maximum rate for quantum time evolution and has been regarded as being unique in quantum mechanics. In this study, we obtain a classical speed limit corresponding to the QSL using Hilbert space for the classical Liouville equation. Thus, classical mechanics has a fundamental speed limit, and the QSL is not a purely quantum phenomenon but a universal dynamical property of Hilbert space. Furthermore, we obtain similar speed limits for the imaginary-time Schrödinger equations such as the classical master equation.
We derive a Geometric quantum speed limit (QSL) for imaginary-time evolution, where the dynamics is governed by a non-unitary Schrödinger equation. By introducing a cost function based on the angular distance between the normalized evolving state and the initial state, we obtain a lower bound on the evolution time expressed as the ratio between this angle and the time-averaged energy dispersion. Our bound is analytical, general, and applicable to arbitrary time-independent Hamiltonians. We analytically evaluate this bound for two physically motivated cases. First, we apply it to a two-level system and derive an expression for the minimal time. Second, we analyze the imaginary-time version of Grover search problem and rigorously reproduce the well-known logarithmic scaling T=O(logN) within our QSL framework.
As one of the fundamental questions, quantum speed limit (QSL) is of vital role in the community of quantum physics, which sets the ultimate, maximal speed with which a quantum system can evolve. QSL originated from the understanding of the Heisenberg uncertainty relation. In 1945, Mandelstam and Tamm found the time Δt in the celebrated relation ΔEΔt≥ℏ could be thought as the minimum time that a quantum system needs to evolve from an initial state to the orthogonal state for unitary evolution. QSL sets the lower bound of the evolution. They established the relationship between the minimum evolution time ( τQSL ) and the energy uncertainty of the system (ΔE), namely τQSL=πℏ/(2ΔE) , the Mandelstam-Tamm (MT) bound. Later, Margolus and Levitin derived another different bound for a closed system which connected the τQSL with the average energy of the system ( 〈E〉 ), i.e., τQSL=πℏ/(2〈E〉) , the Margolus-Levitin (ML) bound. Combining the MT and ML bounds together, we can have a unified bound for a unitary system and orthogonal states. In the case of open system dynamics, because there is energy and/or coherence exchange between the system and the environment, the orthogonal final state of the initial state can hardly be reached any longer. An investigation of the QSL on non-unitary quantum evolution needs to be considered. The generalized QSLs are established by employing the distance between the distinguishable states. Different metrics define different distances, leading to different QSL bounds. We show a few typical generalized QSL bounds based on different metrics. And the unified QSL bound for non-unitary evolution is obtained by combining the generalized MT and ML bounds under the same metric. The generations and developments of QSL have successfully generalized the MT bounds. Even the ML bounds have been attempted to generalize, the current studies of ML bound are thought as the significantly harder task, and keep as the open questions. The influences of external environment and quantum system dynamics which include the role of entanglement in QSL for open dynamics and many-body systems, the relation between the maximum interaction speed and QSL in quantum spin systems, the non-Markovianity effect of the environment on accelerating the speed of evolution have been investigated. Furthermore, by employing the gauge invariant distance in the Riemannian metric, we establish a distinct QSL bound, which relates the quantum speed limit time to the geometry phase, and presents the geometric and gauge invariant properties of it. The bound shows the impacts of the transmission modes of the state vectors on the evolution path in the manifold. Different from the established MT and ML bounds, our bound establishes the relation between the QSL and the Pancharatnam connection 1-form, and our results show that the QSL can be controlled via manipulating the generalized Pahcharatnam connection. Also, our results of QSL are holonomy via the generalized Pahcharatnam connection, which show us a possible technique to speed up the holonomic quantum computation. The bound is also interesting to the metrology and non-equilibrium thermodynamics, etc. QSL has also been studied in the quantum representation of Wigner function. In the future research of quantum speed limit, there are many issues that need to be considered, such as the generalized ML bound, the unified QSL bound under different metrics, the application of maximum rate of quantum information derived from the QSL, and the relation between the quantum speed limit and the quantum heat engine, etc.