A Class of General Quantum Operations

Xiu-Hong Sun, Yuan Li

Akira Matsumura

We explore a general feature of the interaction mediated by the gravitational fields of spatially superposed masses. For this purpose, based on quantum information theory, we characterize the evolution of two particles each in a superposition state of paths. The evolution is assumed to be given by a completely positive trace-preserving (CPTP) map. We further assume that the probability of a particle being on each path is unchanged during the evolution. This property is called population preserving. We examine when a population-preserving CPTP map can create entanglement in terms of separable operations, which form a large class of local operations and classical communication (LOCC). In general, entanglement is not always generated by inseparable or non-LOCC operations, and one can consider a model of gravity described by an inseparable operation which does not create entanglement. However, we find that a population-preserving CPTP map is inseparable if and only if it can create entanglement. This means that the above model of gravity is incompatible with the possible evolution of spatially superposed masses.

Cyril Branciard, Alexandre Clément, Mehdi Mhalla +1 more

Even though coherent control of quantum operations appears to be achievable in practice, it is still not yet well understood. Among theoretical challenges, standard completely positive trace preserving (CPTP) maps are known not to be appropriate to represent coherently controlled quantum channels. We introduce here a graphical language for coherent control of general quantum channels inspired by practical quantum optical setups involving polarising beam splitters (PBS). We consider different situations of coherent control and disambiguate CPTP maps by considering purified channels, an extension of Stinespring’s dilation. First, we show that in classical control settings, the observational equivalence classes of purified channels correspond to the standard definition of quantum channels (CPTP maps). Then, we propose a refinement of this equivalence class generalising the "half quantum switch" situation, where one is allowed to coherently control which quantum channel is applied; in this case, quantum channel implementations can be distinguished using a so-called transformation matrix. A further refinement characterising observational equivalence with general extended PBS-diagrams as contexts is also obtained. Finally, we propose a refinement that could be used for more general coherent control settings.

Yuan Li, Xiu-Hong Sun, Yan-Ni Dou

Anonymous

Cyril Branciard, Alexandre Clément, Mehdi Mhalla +1 more

Even though coherent control of quantum operations appears to be achievable in practice, it is still not yet well understood. Among theoretical challenges, standard completely positive trace preserving (CPTP) maps are known not to be appropriate to represent coherently controlled quantum channels. We introduce here a graphical language for coherent control of general quantum channels inspired by practical quantum optical setups involving polarising beam splitters (PBS). We consider different situations of coherent control and disambiguate CPTP maps by considering purified channels, an extension of Stinespring's dilation.First, we show that in classical control settings, the observational equivalence classes of purified channels correspond to the standard definition of quantum channels (CPTP maps). Then, we propose a refinement of this equivalence class generalising the "half quantum switch" situation, where one is allowed to coherently control which quantum channel is applied; in this case, quantum channel implementations can be distinguished using a so-called transformation matrix. A further refinement characterising observational equivalence with general extended PBS-diagrams as contexts is also obtained. Finally, we propose a refinement that could be used for more general coherent control settings.