Non-Unitary Evolution in Discrete Hilbert Space

Chaobin Liu

A new approach to quantum walks is presented. Considering a quantum system undergoing some unitary discrete-time evolution in a directed graph G, we think of the vertices of G as sites that are occupied by the quantum system, whose internal state is described by density operators. To formulate the unitary evolution, we define reflections in the tensor product of an internal Hilbert space and a spatial Hilbert space. We then construct unitary channels that govern the evolution of the system in the graph. The discrete dynamics of the system (called quantum walks) is obtained by iterating the unitary channel on the density operator of the quantum system. It turns out that in this framework, the action of the unitary channel on a density operator is described by the usual matrix multiplication.

F. Alberto Grünbaum, L. Velázquez, Albert H. Werner +1 more

Dariusz Chruściński, Andrzej Kossakowski

Sourav Paul, Anant Vijay Varma, Sourin Das

Abstract A pure state of a qubit can be geometrically represented as a point on the extended complex plane through stereographic projection. By employing successive conformal maps on the extended complex plane, we can generate an effective discrete-time evolution of the pure states of the qubit. This work focuses on a subset of analytic maps known as fractional linear conformal maps. We show that these maps serve as a unifying framework for a diverse range of quantum-inspired conceivable dynamics, including (i) unitary dynamics,(ii) non-unitary but linear dynamics and (iii) non-unitary and non-linear dynamics where linearity (non-linearity) refers to the action of the discrete time evolution operator on the Hilbert space. We provide a characterization of these maps in terms of Leggett–Garg inequality complemented with no-signaling in time and arrow of time conditions.

Dariusz Chruściński, Andrzej Kossakowski

Miloslav Znojil

The description of unitary evolution using non-Hermitian but ‘hermitizable’ Hamiltonians H is feasible via an ad hoc metric Θ = Θ ( H ) and a (non-unique) amendment 〈 ψ 1 | ψ 2 〉 → 〈 ψ 1 | Θ | ψ 2 〉 of the inner product in Hilbert space. Via a proper fine-tuning of Θ ( H ) this opens the possibility of reaching the boundaries of stability (i.e. exceptional points) in many quantum systems sampled here by the fairly realistic Bose–Hubbard (BH) and discrete anharmonic oscillator (AO) models. In such a setting, it is conjectured that the EP singularity can play the role of a quantum phase-transition interface between different dynamical regimes. Three alternative ‘AO ↔ BH’ implementations of such an EP-mediated dynamical transmutation scenario are proposed and shown, at an arbitrary finite Hilbert-space dimension N , exact and non-numerical.