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Journal of Mathematical Physics

Can a quantum process be oblivious to observation?

Marek Kanter

Published Nov 1, 1997• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this paper time is indexed by a “time group” G that may be either the real line or the integers. A quantum process is a homomorphic representation of G via unitary operators on a Hilbert space L, with the usual continuity restrictions if time is indexed by the reals. Consider a quantum process subject to nonselective observation at all points in time via an observation operator with purely discrete eigenvalues and corresponding simple eigenvectors. Suppose that the process evolves in such a way that the results of observation at a given time are the same, whether or not there have been previous observations. Suppose further that L is spanned by the set of vectors invariant modulo phase under the quantum evolution. If the time group is the integers, then the process is observed to evolve in a classical manner. If the time group is the real line, then the process is never observed to undergo a change of state. The results of this paper are essentially a corollary of von Neumann’s mean ergodic theorem.

DOI
10.1063/1.532153

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In this paper time is indexed by a “time group” G that may be either the real line or the integers. A quantum process is a homomorphic representation of G via unitary operators on a Hilbert space L, with the usual continuity restrictions if time is indexed by the reals. Consider a quantum process subject to nonselective observation at all points in time via an observation operator with purely discrete eigenvalues and corresponding simple eigenvectors. Suppose that the process evolves in such a way that the results of observation at a given time are the same, whether or not there have been previous observations. Suppose further that L is spanned by the set of vectors invariant modulo phase under the quantum evolution. If the time group is the integers, then the process is observed to evolve in a classical manner. If the time group is the real line, then the process is never observed to undergo a change of state. The results of this paper are essentially a corollary of von Neumann’s mean ergodic theorem.
The change of state of a quantum process is studied in the limit when the time t between observations tends to 0. General quantum processes are treated, as represented by a strongly continuous group G of unitary operators on a Hilbert space. Observation is defined as the effect of a self-adjoint operator A on the state vector. When A has countable spectrum and nondegenerate eigenvalues, the limiting change of state (given there is a change) is completely characterized. The most interesting special case occurs when the initial state is an eigenvector of A not in the domain of the Hamiltonian generating G: the whereabouts of the next observed state become infinitely diffuse as t→0. The results involve some analytic and geometric facts about complex valued positive definite functions.
A novel framework for the analysis of observation statistics on time discrete linear evolutions in Banach space is presented. The model differs from traditional models for stochastic processes and, in particular, clearly distinguishes between the deterministic evolution of a system and the stochastic nature of observations on the evolving system. General Markov chains are defined in this context and it is shown how typical traditional models of classical or quantum random walks and Markov processes fit into the framework and how a theory of quantum statistics ({\it sensu} Barndorff-Nielsen, Gill and Jupp) may be developed from it. The framework permits a general theory of joint observability of two or more observation variables which may be viewed as an extension of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and, in particular, offers a novel mathematical perspective on the violation of Bell's inequalities in quantum models. Main results include a general sampling theorem relative to Riesz evolution operators in the spirit of von Neumann's mean ergodic theorem for normal operators in Hilbert space.
The Unitary Dynamical Group in Schrödinger's Picture Up to now we have been concerned with the description of a physical system at a fixed instant of time. The time evolution of quantum systems constitutes a many-faced, wide issue which, however, is somewhat tangential to the main aim of this volume. We shall touch upon it only briefly, restricting ourselves to the more familiar aspects of the problem. We assume, to begin with, that the physical system has no superselection rules, so that states and physical quantities correspond one-to-one to density operators and self-adjoint operators, respectively, on the Hilbert space. To describe the dynamical evolution of the system one has to specify the way the representatives of states and physical quantities evolve in, which is fixed in time, since the physical system is supposed to preserve its identity. There is an old tenet according to which there are two kinds of time evolution: the discontinuous, nondeterministic evolution undergone by the quantum system when a measurement is made on it, and the continuous, deterministic evolution caused by the interaction with external forces or with other quantum systems. The first kind of evolution will be dealt with in Chapter 8, where we shall find it less alarming than is often claimed.
Beginning with the statistical description of the results of a duplicated experiment as a set of configurations of some observables tagether with frequencies of occurrence of each configuration it is shown that an evolution of the system by a stochastic process is obtained when the conditioning parameters of the experiment are altered.It is then shown that any such stochastic process has a representation in terms of linear operators in an abstract vector space with a state vector evolving by an isometric operator S and commuting Hermitian operators representing observables which evolve by another, unitary, operator U.This has the structure of conventional quantum theory as in the interaction, or Dirac picture, but here S is not unitary as in conventional theory.This is shown to yield a matrix of transition probabilities that is not doubly stochastic as in conventional theory and hence the Pauli master equation does not follow.All implications of this completely irreversible quantum theory have not yet been fully explored, but it points to a new viewpoint in irreversible thermod ynamics.
For a quantum state undergoing unitary Schrödinger time evolution, the von Neumann entropy is constant. Yet the second law of thermodynamics, and our experience, show that entropy increases with time. Ingarden introduced the quantum operator entropy, which is the Shannon entropy of the probability distribution for the eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator [R. S. Ingarden, Quantum information theory, Rep. Math. Phys. 10, 43 (1976)RMHPBE0034-487710.1016/0034-4877(76)90005-7]. These entropies characterize the missing information about a particular observable inherent in the quantum state itself. The von Neumann entropy is the quantum operator entropy for the case when the operator is the density matrix. We examine pure state unitary evolution in a simple model system composed of a set of highly interconnected topologically disordered states and a time-independent Hamiltonian. An initially confined state is subject to free expansion into available states. The time development is completely reversible with no loss of quantum information and no course graining is applied. The positional entropy increases in time in a way that is consistent with both the classical statistical mechanical entropy and the second law.
In quantum mechanics without application of any superselection rule to the set of the observables, a closed quantum system temporally evolves unitarily, and this Lorentzian regime is characterized by von Neumann entropy of exactly zero. In the holographic theory in the classicalized ground state, we argue that the unitary real-time evolution of a non-relativistic free particle with complex-valued quantum probability amplitude in this Lorentzian regime can be temporally analytically continued to an imaginary-time classical stochastic process with real-valued conditional probability density in the Euclidean regime, where the von Neumann entropy of the classicalized hologram and the information of a particle trajectory acquired by the classicalized hologram are positive valued. This argument could shed light on the Euclidean regime of the holographic Universe.