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Transfer process and typicality of noisy quantum systems with discrete time dynamics

Michele Avalle

Published Nov 28, 2015• 0 citations

Abstract

In the thesis, models of quantum systems characterized by discrete time dynamics are presented and applied to different problems. More specifically, aspects of excitation transport, quantum state transfer and thermalization are investigated mainly within the framework of quantum cellular automata (QCA), which are discrete time evolution quantum systems defined on a regular lattice of, in this case, qubits. The peculiarities of QCA, together with the restriction to the first excitation sector of the Hilbert space, make it possible to define a transport dynamics on a one dimensional lattice that encompasses all classical Markov chains, as well as maps where quantum coherence between sites can build up over time. This allows for the possibility to make a direct comparison between a fully classical dynamics and a dynamics affected by quantum effects, which is of relevance both in the field of quantum biology, especially regarding the transport of electronic excitations in photosynthetic systems, and in quantum computing when dealing with the transport of an unknown quantum state. In a quantum thermodynamics context, instead, QCA can serve the purpose to validate arguments of tipicality that have been brought forward in recent years in order to demonstrate the thermalization of closed quantum systems (i.e. the tendency of any small subsystems to evolve towards the maximally mixed state). Numerical results concerning this issue are presented. Finally, a modelization of scattering-like processes, where the scattering consists of random unitary interactions between an environment and part of a quantum bipartite system is discussed. Relevant properties of the resulting state such as its mean purity and the correlations between the interacting and the “sheltered” part of the system can be analitically evaluated, and their fluctuations bounded.

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In the thesis, models of quantum systems characterized by discrete time dynamics are presented and applied to different problems. More specifically, aspects of excitation transport, quantum state transfer and thermalization are investigated mainly within the framework of quantum cellular automata (QCA), which are discrete time evolution quantum systems defined on a regular lattice of, in this case, qubits. The peculiarities of QCA, together with the restriction to the first excitation sector of the Hilbert space, make it possible to define a transport dynamics on a one dimensional lattice that encompasses all classical Markov chains, as well as maps where quantum coherence between sites can build up over time. This allows for the possibility to make a direct comparison between a fully classical dynamics and a dynamics affected by quantum effects, which is of relevance both in the field of quantum biology, especially regarding the transport of electronic excitations in photosynthetic systems, and in quantum computing when dealing with the transport of an unknown quantum state. In a quantum thermodynamics context, instead, QCA can serve the purpose to validate arguments of tipicality that have been brought forward in recent years in order to demonstrate the thermalization of closed quantum systems (i.e. the tendency of any small subsystems to evolve towards the maximally mixed state). Numerical results concerning this issue are presented. Finally, a modelization of scattering-like processes, where the scattering consists of random unitary interactions between an environment and part of a quantum bipartite system is discussed. Relevant properties of the resulting state such as its mean purity and the correlations between the interacting and the “sheltered” part of the system can be analitically evaluated, and their fluctuations bounded.

We model the transport of an unknown quantum state on one dimensional qubit lattices by means of a quantum cellular automata (QCA) evolution. We do this by first introducing a class of discrete noisy dynamics, in the first excitation sector, in which a wide group of classical stochastic dynamics is embedded within the more general formalism of quantum operations. We then extend the Hilbert space of the system to accommodate a global vacuum state, thus allowing for the transport of initial on-site coherences besides excitations, and determine the dynamical constraints that define the class of noisy QCA in this subspace. We then study the transport performance through numerical simulations, showing that for some instances of the dynamics perfect quantum state transfer is attainable. Our approach provides one with a natural description of both unitary and open quantum evolutions, where the homogeneity and locality of interactions allow one to take into account several forms of quantum noise in a plausible scenario.

We model the transport of an unknown quantum state on one dimensional qubit lattices by means of a quantum cellular automata evolution. We do this by first introducing a class of discrete noisy dynamics, in the first excitation sector, in which a wide group of classical stochastic dynamics is embedded within the more general formalism of quantum operations. We then extend the Hilbert space of the system to accommodate a global vacuum state, thus allowing for the transport of initial on-site coherences besides excitations, and determine the dynamical constraints that define the class of noisy quantum cellular automata in this subspace. We then study the transport performance through numerical simulations, showing that for some instances of the dynamics perfect quantum state transfer is attainable. Our approach provides one with a natural description of both unitary and open quantum evolutions, where the homogeneity and locality of interactions allow one to take into account several forms of quantum noise in a plausible scenario.

Treating the time evolution of many-body systems in discrete time steps is very useful in both classical and quantum physics, simplifying exact and numerical calculations of different observables. In this thesis, we study different classical and quantum discrete-time models. In the first part, we focus on classical systems through the lens of cellular automata which, despite being simple in construction, exhibit a multitude of differing integrable and chaotic behaviors. We study a specific subset of momentum-conserving parity check automata (MCPCA), which are cellular automata defined on bipartite graphs that conserve momentum and parity along their interaction vertices. We show that these automata describe systems with non-ergodic behavior in the spectra of their autocorrelation functions for different types of lattices. Studying their conserved charges, we demonstrate that the information spreading in such systems undergoes a phase transition between a localized and a delocalized phase. Additionally, we investigate the transport properties of the conserved charges in a specific sector of charge configuration of the MCPCA, we observe that the transport is anomalous in this sector. Moreover, we provide a classification of all possible two-states 3-to-3 cellular automata rules defined on the honeycomb lattice based on their dynamics and spectral properties. In the final part of the thesis, we focus on the quantum dual-unitary gates, which are a special kind of quantum gates that preserve their unitarity condition under space-time exchange. We give exact results on the dynamical correlation functions of dual-unitary circuits defined on random geometries that we dubbed Mikado circuits. We show different random geometries realizations and the exact results for the first two moments of the averaged correlation functions.

Quantum devices featuring mid-circuit measurement and reset capabilities, such as quantum computers and dual-species Rydberg quantum simulators, enable the realization of quantum cellular automata. These systems evolve in discrete time following local updates implemented by unitary gates, and allow for the realization of both closed and synthetic dissipative dynamics. Here, we focus on quantum cellular automata that implement minimal models of classical and quantum transport. To illustrate our ideas, we focus on a discrete-time totally asymmetric simple exclusion process and investigate how coherent dynamical contributions allow for the emergence of quantum effects and correlations. We find that bipartite entanglement dominates the transient evolution, while stationary states can retain quantum correlations beyond entanglement. Our results suggest viable routes for realizing transport models on quantum devices and characterizing collective quantum correlations in strongly driven systems.

We introduce a class of noisy quantum cellular automata on a qubit lattice that includes all classical Markov chains, as well as maps where quantum coherence between sites is allowed to build up over time. We apply such a construction to the problem of excitation transfer through 1D lattices, and compare the performance of classical and quantum dynamics with equal local transition probabilities. Our discrete approach has the merits of stripping down the complications of the open system dynamics, of clearly isolating coherent effects, and of allowing for an exact treatment of conditional dynamics, all while capturing a rich variety of dynamical behaviors.

This thesis is split into two parts, which are united in the sense that they involve applying ideas from quantum information to fundamental physics. The first part is focused on examining discrete-time models in quantum computation (discrete-time quantum walks and quantum cellular automata) as discretized models of relativistic systems. One of the results here is a theorem demonstrating that a large class of discrete-time quantum walks have relativistic dynamics in the continuum limit. Additionally, the problem of fermion doubling for these models is investigated, and it is seen that the problem can be circumvented in two dimensional space. This was already known for one dimensional systems. Another result involves taking the limits of causal free field theories in discrete spacetime to recover continuum field theories, something that is not straightforward because of the nontrivial nature of the vacuum in quantum field theory. Additionally, it is shown that general systems of fermions evolving causally in discrete spacetime can be represented by quantum cellular automata, which makes them efficiently simulable by quantum computers. A related result is that quantum cellular automata composed of fermions are equivalent to regular quantum cellular automata. In the second part of this thesis, the focus is on the foundations of statistical physics. The main result of this part is a general bound on the time it takes a quantum system to effectively reach equilibrium. The discussion also includes a practical definition of equilibration that takes our measurement capabilities into account. Finally, the nature of the equilibrium state is also discussed, with a focus on initial state independence, which relates to the important question of when the equilibrium state is a Gibbs state.