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arXiv:2408.03086 · Zeitschrift für Naturforschung A

A generalization of the Choi isomorphism with application to open quantum systems

Heinz–Jürgen Schmidt

Published Apr 22, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Abstract Completely positive transformations play an important role in the description of state changes in quantum mechanics, including the time evolution of open quantum systems. One useful tool to describe them is the so-called Choi isomorphism, which maps completely positive transformations to positive semi-definite matrices. Accordingly, there are numerous proposals to generalize the Choi isomorphism. In the present paper, we show that the 1976 paper of Gorini, Kossakowski, and Sudarshan (GKS) already holds the key for a further generalization and study the resulting GKS isomorphism. As an application, we compute the GKS matrix of the time evolution of a general open quantum system up to second order in time.

DOI
10.1515/zna-2026-0002

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Abstract Completely positive transformations play an important role in the description of state changes in quantum mechanics, including the time evolution of open quantum systems. One useful tool to describe them is the so-called Choi isomorphism, which maps completely positive transformations to positive semi-definite matrices. Accordingly, there are numerous proposals to generalize the Choi isomorphism. In the present paper, we show that the 1976 paper of Gorini, Kossakowski, and Sudarshan (GKS) already holds the key for a further generalization and study the resulting GKS isomorphism. As an application, we compute the GKS matrix of the time evolution of a general open quantum system up to second order in time.
Abstract The Choi–Jamiołkowski isomorphism is an essential component in every quantum information theorist’s toolkit: it allows to identify linear maps between two quantum systems with linear operators on the composite system. Here, we analyse this widely used gadget from a new perspective. Namely, we explicitly distinguish between its kinematical and dynamical properties, that is, we study the isomorphism on two different levels: Jordan algebras and the different C ∗ -algebras they arise from, which are distinguished by their order of composition. A number of important and novel insights stem from our analysis. We find that Choi’s theorem, which asserts that Choi’s version of the isomorphism (Choi 1975 Lin. Alg. Appl. 10 285) further maps the positive cone of completely positive linear maps (such as quantum channels) to the cone of positive linear operators (such as quantum states) on the composite system, crucially depends on the dynamical structure in C ∗ -algebras. We explain in detail how this dependence gives rise to the mismatch between the basis-dependence of Choi’s version of the isomorphism, and the basis-independent version by Jamiołkowski (1972 Rep. Math. Phys. 3 275). We then overcome this subtle but pervasive issue in a number of ways: first, we prove a version of Choi’s theorem for Jamiołkowski’s isomorphism, second, we define a basis-independent variant of Choi’s isomorphism and, third, by making explicit the dynamical distinction between Jordan and C ∗ -algebras, we combine the different variants of the isomorphism into a unified description, that subsumes their individual features. We also embed and interpret our results in the graphical calculus of categorical quantum mechanics.
Abstract The Choi representation of completely positive trace preserving (CPTP) maps, i.e. quantum channels is often used in the context of quantum information and computation as it is easy to work with. It is a correspondence between CPTP maps and quantum states also termed as the Choi–Jamiołkowski isomorphism. It is especially useful if a parametrization of the set of CPTP maps is needed in order to consider a general map or optimize over the set of these. Here we provide a brief introduction to this topic, focusing on certain useful calculational techniques which are presented in full detail.
Open quantum systems are, in general, described by a density matrix that is evolving under transformations belonging to a dynamical semigroup. They can obey the Franke–Gorini–Kossakowski–Lindblad–Sudarshan (FGKLS) equation. We exhaustively study the case of a Hilbert space of dimension 2. First, we find final fixed states (called pointers) of an evolution of an open system, and we then obtain a general solution to the FGKLS equation and confirm that it converges to a pointer. After this, we check that the solution has physical meaning, i.e., it is Hermitian, positive and has trace equal to 1, and find a moment of time starting from which the FGKLS equation can be used—the range of applicability of the semigroup symmetry. Next, we study the behavior of a solution for a weak interaction with an environment and make a distinction between interacting and non-interacting cases. Finally, we prove that there cannot exist oscillating solutions to the FGKLS equation, which would resemble the behavior of a closed quantum system.
We introduce a new regularization of the Redfield equation based on a replacement of the Kossakowski matrix with its closest positive semidefinite neighbor. Unlike most of the existing approaches, this procedure is capable of retaining the time dependence of the Kossakowski matrix, leading to a completely positive divisible quantum process. Using the dynamics of an exactly-solvable three-level open system as a reference, we show that our approach performs better during the transient evolution, if compared to other approaches like the partial secular master equation or the universal Lindblad equation. To make the comparison between different regularization schemes independent from the initial state, we introduce a new quantitative approach based on the Choi-Jamiołkowski isomorphism.
The complete positivity vs positivity correspondence in the Choi-Jamiołkowski-Kraus-Sudarshan quantum channel-state isomorphism depends on the choice of basis. Instead of the "canonical" basis, if we use, e.g., the Pauli spin matrices along with the identity as the basis for the space of bounded operators on the two-dimensional complex Hilbert space, this correspondence breaks down. A sufficient condition on the basis for validity of this correspondence is provided in the work of Paulsen and Shult~\cite{Paulsen}, which was later proven to be necessary by Kye~\cite{Kye}. A correspondence is also present between the space of super-maps and the tensor product of the spaces of the inputs and outputs of the same. In particular, a super-map is completely CP-preserving if and only if its Choi-type representation is completely positive (CP). This correspondence also depends on a specific choice of basis. In this work, we find the necessary and sufficient condition on a basis such that this correspondence holds true.
The description of the dynamics of an open quantum system in the presence of initial correlations with the environment needs different mathematical tools than the standard approach to reduced dynamics, which is based on the use of a time-dependent completely positive trace preserving (CPTP) map. Here, we take into account an approach that is based on a decomposition of any possibly correlated bipartite state as a conical combination involving statistical operators on the environment and general linear operators on the system, which allows one to fix the reduced-system evolution via a finite set of time-dependent CPTP maps. In particular, we show that such a decomposition always exists, also for infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces, and that the number of resulting CPTP maps is bounded by the Schmidt rank of the initial global state. We further investigate the case where the CPTP maps are semigroups with generators in the Gorini-Kossakowski-Lindblad-Sudarshan form; for two simple qubit models, we identify the positivity domain defined by the initial states that are mapped into proper states at any time of the evolution fixed by the CPTP semigroups.