Abstract Quantum trajectory techniques have been used in the theory of open systems as a starting point for numerical computations and to describe the monitoring of a quantum system in continuous time. We extend this technique to develop a general approach to the dynamics of quantum/classical hybrid systems. By using two coupled stochastic differential equations, we can describe a classical component and a quantum one which have their own intrinsic dynamics and which interact with each other. A mathematically rigorous construction is given, under the restriction of having a Markovian joint dynamics and of involving only bounded operators on the Hilbert space of the quantum component. An important feature is that, if the interaction allows for a flow of information from the quantum component to the classical one, necessarily the dynamics is dissipative. We show also how this theory is connected to a suitable hybrid dynamical semigroup, which reduces to a quantum dynamical semigroup in the purely quantum case and includes Liouville and Kolmogorov–Fokker–Planck equations in the purely classical case. Moreover, this semigroup allows to compare the proposed stochastic dynamics with various other proposals based on hybrid master equations. Some simple examples are constructed in order to show the variety of physical behaviors which can be described; in particular, a model presenting hidden entanglement is introduced.
Abstract Quantum trajectory techniques have been used in the theory of open systems as a starting point for numerical computations and to describe the monitoring of a quantum system in continuous time. We extend this technique to develop a general approach to the dynamics of quantum/classical hybrid systems. By using two coupled stochastic differential equations, we can describe a classical component and a quantum one which have their own intrinsic dynamics and which interact with each other. A mathematically rigorous construction is given, under the restriction of having a Markovian joint dynamics and of involving only bounded operators on the Hilbert space of the quantum component. An important feature is that, if the interaction allows for a flow of information from the quantum component to the classical one, necessarily the dynamics is dissipative. We show also how this theory is connected to a suitable hybrid dynamical semigroup, which reduces to a quantum dynamical semigroup in the purely quantum case and includes Liouville and Kolmogorov–Fokker–Planck equations in the purely classical case. Moreover, this semigroup allows to compare the proposed stochastic dynamics with various other proposals based on hybrid master equations. Some simple examples are constructed in order to show the variety of physical behaviors which can be described; in particular, a model presenting hidden entanglement is introduced.
A concise and self-contained derivation of hybrid quantum-classical dynamics is given in terms of Markovian master equations. Many previously known results are rederived and revised and some of them are completed or corrected. Using a method as simple as possible, our goal is a brief introduction to the state of the art of hybrid dynamics, with a limited discussion of the implications for foundations and without discussion of further relevance in the measurement problem, quantum gravity, chemistry, numeric methods, etc. Hybrid dynamics is defined as a special case of composite quantum dynamics where the observables of one of the two subsystems are restricted to the commuting set of diagonal operators in a fixed basis. With this restriction, the derivation of hybrid dynamical equations is clear conceptually and simple technically. Jump and diffusive dynamics follow in the form of hybrid master equations. Their stochastic interpretation (called unravelings) is derived. We discuss gauge-type ambiguities, problems of uniqueness, and covariance of the diffusive master equation. Also conditions of minimum noise and of monitoring the quantum trajectory are derived. We conclude that the hybrid formalism is equivalent to the standard Markovian theory of time-continuous quantum measurement (monitoring) on the one hand and is a motivating alternative formalism on the other.
We develop a Bayesian formulation of diffusive quantum-classical dynamics by treating the wave function and classical variables as components of an ordinary stochastic process. The joint probability density P(psi,x,t) obeys a classical Fokker-Planck equation, while the quantum state appears as its second moment. Requiring autonomous second-moment evolution and trace preservation, together with a full-column-rank quantum-classical noise correlation matrix, forces the ensemble dynamics into hybrid Lindblad form. The same result also determines the general class of diffusive stochastic unravelings compatible with this hybrid evolution. Notably, this construction makes positivity immediate and does not take complete positivity or an underlying unitary quantum dilation as assumptions, but instead relies on the presence of a sufficiently coupled classical sector.
We formulate quantum measurement, filtering and smoothing of hybrid quantum-classical dynamics as standard Bayesian inference and show how to correlation between the quantum and classical noise fully explains the differences between quantum smoothing and smoothing in classical time series models. We recover the stochastic master equation from the Kushner-Stratonovich equation with correlated noise and show how the quantum effect operator is related to the Bayesian backward message through the adjoint dynamics of the linear unraveling. The Bayesian posterior also defines a smoothed density matrix and, more generally, a posterior distribution over latent quantum-classical trajectories.
These quantities can be approximated with standard particle filtering and smoothing methods. Numerical examples show that smoothing improves reconstruction of a hidden quantum-classical trajectory and that the full trajectory posterior can retain structure, such as multimodality, that is absent from its density-matrix second moment.
In the case of a quantum-classical hybrid system with a finite number of degrees of freedom, the problem of characterizing the most general dynamical semigroup is solved, under the restriction of being quasi-free. This is a generalization of a Gaussian dynamics, and it is defined by the property of sending (hybrid) Weyl operators into Weyl operators in the Heisenberg description. The result is a quantum generalization of the Lévy–Khintchine formula; Gaussian and jump contributions are included. As a byproduct, the most general quasi-free quantum-dynamical semigroup is obtained; on the classical side the Liouville equation and the Kolmogorov–Fokker–Planck equation are included. As a classical subsystem can be observed, in principle, without perturbing it, information can be extracted from the quantum system, even in continuous time; indeed, the whole construction is related to the theory of quantum measurements in continuous time. While the dynamics is formulated to give the hybrid state at a generic time [Formula: see text], we show how to extract multi-time probabilities and how to connect them to the quantum notions of positive operator-valued measure and instrument. The structure of the generator of the dynamical semigroup is analyzed, in order to understand how to go on to non-quasi-free cases and to understand the possible classical-quantum interactions; in particular, all the interaction terms which allow to extract information from the quantum system necessarily vanish if no dissipation is present in the dynamics of the quantum component. A concrete example is given, showing how a classical component can input noise into a quantum one and how the classical system can extract information on the behavior of the quantum one.
Quantum Markov models are employed ubiqui-tously in quantum physics and in quantum information theory due to their relative simplicity and analytical tractability. In particular, these models are known to give accurate approxi-mations for a wide range of quantum optical and meso scopic systems. However, in general, the validity of the Markov approximation entails assumptions regarding properties of the system of interest and its environment, which may not be satisfied or accurate in arbitrary physical systems. Therefore, developing useful modelling tools for general non-Markovian quantum systems for which the Markov approximation is inappropriate or deficient is an undertaking of significant importance. This work considers non-Markovian principal quantum systems that can be embedded in a larger Markovian quantum system with one or more compound baths consisting of an auxiliary quantum system and a quantum white noise field, and derives a set of coupled stochastic and quantum master equations for embedded non-Markovian quantum systems. The case of a purely Hamiltonian coupling between the principal and auxiliary systems as a closed system without coupling to white noises is included as a special case. The results are expected to be of interest for (open-loop and feedback) control of continuous-time non-Markovian systems and studying reduced models for numerical simulation of such systems. They may also shed more light on the general structure of continuous-time non-Markovian quantum systems.
The cost of classical simulations of quantum many-body dynamics is often determined by the amount of entanglement in the system. In this paper, we study entanglement in stochastic quantum trajectory approaches that solve master equations describing open quantum system dynamics. First, we introduce and compare adaptive trajectory unravelings of master equations. Specifically, building on Ref. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 243601 (2022)], we study several greedy algorithms that generate trajectories with a low average entanglement entropy. Second, we consider various conventional unravelings of a one-dimensional open random Brownian circuit and locate the transition points from area- to volume-law-entangled trajectories. Third, we compare various trajectory unravelings using matrix product states with a direct integration of the master equation using matrix product operators. We provide concrete examples of dynamics, for which the simulation cost of stochastic trajectories is exponentially smaller than the one of matrix product operators.
The cost of classical simulations of quantum many-body dynamics is often determined by the amount of entanglement in the system. In this paper, we study entanglement in stochastic quantum trajectory approaches that solve master equations describing open quantum system dynamics. First, we introduce and compare adaptive trajectory unravelings of master equations. Specifically, building on [Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 243601 (2022)], we study several greedy algorithms that generate trajectories with a low average entanglement entropy. Second, we consider various conventional unravelings of a one-dimensional open random Brownian circuit and locate the transition points from area- to volume-law-entangled trajectories. Third, we compare various trajectory unravelings using matrix product states with a direct integration of the master equation using matrix product operators. We provide concrete examples of dynamics, for which the simulation cost of stochastic trajectories is exponentially smaller than the one of matrix product operators.