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arXiv:2109.03847 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

Quantum and classical dynamical semigroups of superchannels and semicausal channels

Markus Hasenöhrl, Matthias C. Caro

Published Jul 1, 2022• 6 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quantum devices are subject to natural decay. We propose to study these decay processes as the Markovian evolution of quantum channels, which leads us to dynamical semigroups of superchannels. A superchannel is a linear map that maps quantum channels to quantum channels while satisfying suitable consistency relations. If the input and output quantum channels act on the same space, then we can consider dynamical semigroups of superchannels. No useful constructive characterization of the generators of such semigroups is known. We characterize these generators in two ways: First, we give an efficiently checkable criterion for whether a given map generates a dynamical semigroup of superchannels. Second, we identify a normal form for the generators of semigroups of quantum superchannels, analogous to the Gorini-Kossakowski-Lindblad-Sudarshan form in the case of quantum channels. To derive the normal form, we exploit the relation between superchannels and semicausal completely positive maps, reducing the problem to finding a normal form for the generators of semigroups of semicausal completely positive maps. We derive a normal for these generators using a novel technique, which applies also to infinite-dimensional systems. Our work paves the way for a thorough investigation of semigroups of superchannels: Numerical studies become feasible because admissible generators can now be explicitly generated and checked. Analytic properties of the corresponding evolution equations are now accessible via our normal form.

DOI
10.1063/5.0070635

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Quantum devices are subject to natural decay. We propose to study these decay processes as the Markovian evolution of quantum channels, which leads us to dynamical semigroups of superchannels. A superchannel is a linear map that maps quantum channels to quantum channels while satisfying suitable consistency relations. If the input and output quantum channels act on the same space, then we can consider dynamical semigroups of superchannels. No useful constructive characterization of the generators of such semigroups is known. We characterize these generators in two ways: First, we give an efficiently checkable criterion for whether a given map generates a dynamical semigroup of superchannels. Second, we identify a normal form for the generators of semigroups of quantum superchannels, analogous to the Gorini-Kossakowski-Lindblad-Sudarshan form in the case of quantum channels. To derive the normal form, we exploit the relation between superchannels and semicausal completely positive maps, reducing the problem to finding a normal form for the generators of semigroups of semicausal completely positive maps. We derive a normal for these generators using a novel technique, which applies also to infinite-dimensional systems. Our work paves the way for a thorough investigation of semigroups of superchannels: Numerical studies become feasible because admissible generators can now be explicitly generated and checked. Analytic properties of the corresponding evolution equations are now accessible via our normal form.
A well established approach to describe open quantum system dynamics is the celebrated Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad (GKSL) master equation. In this article we aim to shed light on semigroup dynamics that are not of this form. Such dynamics may appear in real physical systems describing asymptotic long-time dynamics. Thus, they correspond to semigroup dynamics applicable to a restricted set of initial states only. As a way of motivating our studies, first we review known results about the single-mode Gaussian Quantum Brownian motion channel and corresponding master equations. Next we discuss a conceptually simpler family of qubit semigroup generators and identify parameter regions of completely positive, merely positive, and non-positive dynamics. We then focus on the latter case to which we will refer to as restricted-positive, as the semigroup generator may well be physically meaningful when applied to a restricted set of admissible initial states.
Quantum superchannels are maps whose input and output are quantum channels. Rather than taking the domain to be the space of all linear maps we motivate and define superchannels on the operator system spanned by quantum channels. Extension theorems for completely positive maps allow us to apply the characterisation theorem for superchannels to this smaller set of maps. These extensions are non unique, showing two different superchannels act the same on all input quantum channels, and so this new definition on the smaller domain captures more precisely the action of superchannels as transformations between quantum channels. The non uniqueness can affect the auxilliary dimension needed for the characterisation as well as the tensor product of the superchannels.
We consider one-parameter families of generating quantum channels. Such families are called the generating quantum dynamical mappings or the generating quantum processes. By the generating channels of composite quantum systems, we understand the channels that allow the channels of constituent subsystems, called the induced channels, to be uniquely defined. Using the criterion for generating and induced linear mappings, we study the properties of bijective quantum channels and the properties of quantum processes consisting of such channels. Using a generating quantum dynamical mapping, we naturally construct the induced dynamical mapping. We show that the properties of continuity and completely positive divisibility of generating quantum dynamical mappings are hereditary for induced dynamical mappings. As an application of the obtained results, we construct continuous completely positive evolutions. For generating quantum dynamical mappings taking values in the set of phase-damping channels, we obtain a criterion for the completely positive divisibility.
In recent years, digraph induced generators of quantum dynamical semigroups have been introduced and studied, particularly in the context of unique relaxation and invariance. We define the class of pair block diagonal generators, which allows for additional interaction coefficients but preserves the main structural properties. Namely, when the basis of the underlying Hilbert space is given by the eigenbasis of the Hamiltonian (for example the generic semigroups), then the action of the semigroup leaves invariant the diagonal and off-diagonal matrix spaces. In this case, we explicitly compute all invariant states of the semigroup. In order to define this class we provide a characterization of when the Gorini- Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad (GKSL) equation defines a proper generator when arbitrary Lindblad operators are allowed (in particular, they do not need to be trace- less as demanded by the GKSL Theorem). Moreover, we consider the converse con- struction to show that every generator naturally gives rise to a digraph, and that under certain assumptions the properties of this digraph can be exploited to gain knowledge of both the number and the structure of the invariant states of the corre- sponding semigroup. We also consider more general constructions on the von Neumann algebra of all bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space, perhaps infinite dimensional. In partic- ular, we prove that for every semigroup of Schwarz maps on such an algebra which has a subinvariant faithful normal state there exists an associated semigroup of con- tractions on the space of Hilbert-Schmidt operators of the Hilbert space. Moreover, we show that if the original semigroup is weak∗ continuous then the associated semigroup is strongly continuous. We introduce the notion of the extended generator of a semigroup on the bounded operators of a Hilbert space with respect to an or- thonormal basis of the Hilbert space. We describe this form of the generator of a quantum Markov semigroup on the von Neumann algebra of all bounded linear op- erators on a Hilbert space which has an invariant faithful normal state under the assumption that the generator of the associated semigroup has compact resolvent, or under the assumption that the minimal unitary dilation of the associated semigroup of contractions is compact.
Using the tool of quantum characteristic functions of [Formula: see text]-mode states in the boson Fock space [Formula: see text] we construct a semigroup of quantum information channels. This leads to a special class of one-parameter semigroups of such channels. These semigroups are concrete but their generators have unbounded operator coefficients. These one-parameter semigroups are also quantum dynamical semigroups and the form of the generators involves additional features which do not appear in the standard Gorini-Kossakawski-Sudarshan-Lindbald (GKSL) form. A heuristic discussion of the form of these generators is included. In the wake of this analysis many open problems arise naturally.
Dynamical semigroups have become the key structure for describing open system dynamics in all of physics. Bounded generators are known to be of a standard form, due to Gorini, Kossakowski, Sudarshan and Lindblad. This form is often used also in the unbounded case, but rather little is known about the general form of unbounded generators. In this paper we first give a precise description of the standard form in the unbounded case, emphasizing intuition, and collecting and even proving the basic results around it. We also give a cautionary example showing that the standard form must not be read too naively. Further examples are given of semigroups, which appear to be probability preserving to first order, but are not for finite times. Based on these, we construct examples of generators which are not of standard form.