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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Quantum probability density function (QPDF) method

Ronald E. Meyers

Published Aug 18, 2005• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper develops the Quantum Probability Density Function (QPDF) method to describe the evolution of quantum probability density functions in space and time. The QPDF method has been applied to derive QPDF equations for quantum scalar particles. The formulations relate probability theory and quantum uncertainty and thereby provide insight into the quantum theory and the quantum fluid approach of quantum mechanics. The QPDF approach can be applied to problems in quantum communications, quantum imaging, and quantum computing.

DOI
10.1117/12.620152

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We present a new formulation of conventional quantum mechanics, in which the notion of a quantum state is identified via a fair probability distribution of the position measured in a reference frame of the phase space with rotated axes. In this formulation, the quantum evolution equation as well as the equation for finding energy levels are expressed as linear equations for the probability distributions that determine the quantum states. We also give the integral transforms relating the probability distribution (called the tomographic-probability distribution or the state tomogram) to the density matrix and the Wigner function and discuss their connection with the Radon transform. Qudit states are considered and the invertible map of the state density operators onto the probability vectors is discussed. The tomographic entropies and entropic uncertainty relations are reviewed. We demonstrate the uncertainty relations for the position and momentum and the entropic uncertainty relations in the tomographic-probability representation, which is suitable for an experimental check of the uncertainty relations.
The main problem of quantum mechanics is to elucidate why the probability density is the modulus square of wave function. For the purpose of solving this problem, we explored the possibility of deducing the fundamental equation of quantum mechanics by starting with the probability density. To do so, it is necessary to formulate a new theory of quantum mechanics distinguished from the previous ones. Our investigation shows that it is possible to construct quantum mechanics in phase space as an alternative autonomous formulation and such a possibility enables us to study quantum mechanics by starting with the probability density rather than the wave function. This direction of research is contrary to configuration-space formulation of quantum mechanics starting with the wave function. Our work leads to a full understanding of the wave function as the both mathematically and physically sufficient representation of quantum-mechanical state which supplements information on quantum state given solely by the probability density with phase information on quantum state. The final result of our work is that quantum mechanics in phase space satisfactorily elucidates the relation between the wave function and the probability density by using the consistent procedure starting with the probability density, thus corroborating the ontological interpretation of the wave function and withdrawing a main assumption of quantum mechanics.
The review of new formulation of conventional quantum mechanics where the quantum states are identified with probability distributions is presented. The invertible map of density operators and wave functions onto the probability distributions describing the quantum states in quantum mechanics is constructed both for systems with continuous variables and systems with discrete variables by using the Born's rule and recently suggested method of dequantizer-quantizer operators. Examples of discussed probability representations of qubits (spin-1/2, two-level atoms), harmonic oscillator and free particle are studied in detail. Schrödinger and von Neumann equations, as well as equations for the evolution of open systems, are written in the form of linear classical-like equations for the probability distributions determining the quantum system states. Relations to phase-space representation of quantum states (Wigner functions) with quantum tomography and classical mechanics are elucidated.
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This paper considers open quantum systems whose dynamic variables satisfy canonical commutation relations and are governed by Markovian Hudson-Parthasarathy quantum stochastic differential equations driven by external bosonic fields. The dependence of the Hamiltonian and the system-field coupling operators on the system variables is represented using the Weyl functional calculus. This leads to an integro-differential equation (IDE) for the evolution of the quasi-characteristic function (QCF) which encodes the dynamics of mixed moments of the system variables. Unlike quantum master equations for reduced density operators, this IDE involves only complex-valued functions on finite-dimensional Euclidean spaces and extends the Wigner-Moyal phase-space approach for quantum stochastic systems. The dynamics of the QCF and the related Wigner quasi-probability density function (QPDF) are discussed in more detail for the case when the coupling operators depend linearly on the system variables and the Hamiltonian has a nonquadratic part represented in the Weyl quantization form. For this class of quantum stochastic systems, we also consider an approximate computation of invariant states and discuss the deviation from Gaussian quantum states in terms of the χ2χ^2χ2-divergence (or the second-order Renyi relative entropy) applied to the QPDF. The results of the paper may find applications to investigating different aspects of the moment stability, relaxation dynamics and invariant states in open quantum systems.