G.A. RAGGIO Abstract. We give a brief and incomplete survey of the problem of entan- glement of of composite quantum systems. 1960's - 1980's there were serious attempts (all of them anticipated by J. von Neu- mann) to do away with the underlying Hilbert space and work directly with the abstract algebraic structure modeled by C � -algebras or W � -algebras (abstract von Neumann algebras)(1, 2, 3). This was particularly fruitful when dealing with sys- tems of infinitely many degrees of freedom (quantum fields, thermodynamic limits, etc.). The problem of entanglement which we want to address here can be formu- lated quite straightforwardly in this algebraic framework of quantum theory. But we will stick to the quantum mechanics of the 1930's and keep the Hilbert space. Mainly because the results which are available concern the finite dimensional case. The states of the quantum system specified by H are associated with the lin- ear functionals f : B(H) → C which are positive (i.e., f(a) ≥ 0 for all positive a ∈ B(H)), normalized (i.e., f(1) = 1) and normal (i.e., f(supn{an}) = supnf(an) for any increasing family of selfadjoint operators {an : n = 1,2, � � � } which is uni- formly bounded). It is this normality condition which guarantees that the are in one-to-one correspondence with positive trace class operators d of unit trace (density operators) via the formula B(H) ∋ a 7→ tr(da). This gives an extremely convenient representation of and one often confuses the state f as a linear functional with the associated density operator d for which f(a) = tr(da). States are automatically continuous, and satisfy f(a � ) = f(a). The complex number f(a) is interpreted probabilistically as the expected value of the observable associated with the operator a when the system is in the state f. The normalization condi- tion is thus necessary for the consistency of this interpretation and the normality condition is seen as a non-commutative version of the �-additivity of probability measures. Clearly states, which we will denote by �(H), form a convex set which is closed
G.A. RAGGIO Abstract. We give a brief and incomplete survey of the problem of entan- glement of of composite quantum systems. 1960's - 1980's there were serious attempts (all of them anticipated by J. von Neu- mann) to do away with the underlying Hilbert space and work directly with the abstract algebraic structure modeled by C � -algebras or W � -algebras (abstract von Neumann algebras)(1, 2, 3). This was particularly fruitful when dealing with sys- tems of infinitely many degrees of freedom (quantum fields, thermodynamic limits, etc.). The problem of entanglement which we want to address here can be formu- lated quite straightforwardly in this algebraic framework of quantum theory. But we will stick to the quantum mechanics of the 1930's and keep the Hilbert space. Mainly because the results which are available concern the finite dimensional case. The states of the quantum system specified by H are associated with the lin- ear functionals f : B(H) → C which are positive (i.e., f(a) ≥ 0 for all positive a ∈ B(H)), normalized (i.e., f(1) = 1) and normal (i.e., f(supn{an}) = supnf(an) for any increasing family of selfadjoint operators {an : n = 1,2, � � � } which is uni- formly bounded). It is this normality condition which guarantees that the are in one-to-one correspondence with positive trace class operators d of unit trace (density operators) via the formula B(H) ∋ a 7→ tr(da). This gives an extremely convenient representation of and one often confuses the state f as a linear functional with the associated density operator d for which f(a) = tr(da). States are automatically continuous, and satisfy f(a � ) = f(a). The complex number f(a) is interpreted probabilistically as the expected value of the observable associated with the operator a when the system is in the state f. The normalization condi- tion is thus necessary for the consistency of this interpretation and the normality condition is seen as a non-commutative version of the �-additivity of probability measures. Clearly states, which we will denote by �(H), form a convex set which is closed
``Quantum'' stands for for the concepts (both operational and formal) which had to be added to classical physics in order to understand otherwise unexplainable observed phenomena such as the structure of the spectral lines in atomic spectra. While the basic part of classical mechanics deals with the (essentially) reversible dynamics, quantum required adding the notions of ``measurement'' and (possibly non-local) ``correlations'' to the discussion. Crucially, all this comes with a ``probabilistic calculus''. The corresponding mathematical formalism was considered to have reached maturity in [von Neumann 1932], but there are some manifest problems with that formalism: (i) While measurements are applied to physical systems, application of their formal counterpart (i.e. a self-adjoint linear operator) to the vector representing that state of the system in no way reflects how the state changes during the act of measurement. Analogously, the composite of two self-adjoint operators has no physical significance while in practice measurements can be effectuated sequentially. More generally, the formal types in von Neumann's formalism do not reflect the nature of the corresponding underlying concept at all! (ii) Part of the problem regarding the measurements discussed above is that in the von Neumann formalism there is no place for storage, manipulation and exchange of the classical data obtained from measurements. Protocols such as quantum teleportation involving these cannot be given a full formal description. (iii) The behavioral properties of quantum entanglement which for example enable continuous data exchange using only finitary communication are hidden in the formalism. In [Abramsky and Coecke 2004] we addressed all these problems, and in addition provided a purely categorical axiomatization of quantum mechanics. The concepts of the abstract quantum mechanics are formulated relative to a strongly compact closed category with biproducts (of which the category FdHilb of finite dimensional Hilbert spaces and linear maps is an example). Preparations, measurements, either destructive or not, classical data exchange are all morphisms in that category, and their types fully reflect their kinds. Correctness properties of standard quantum protocols can be abstractly proven. Surprisingly, in this seemingly purely qualitative setting even the quantitative Born rule arises, that is the rule which tells you how to calculate the probabilities. Indeed, each such category has as endomorphism Hom of the tensor unit an abelian semiring of `scalars', and a special subset of these scalars will play the role of weights: each scalar induces a natural transformation which propagates through physical processes, and when a `state' undergoes a `measurement', the composition of the corresponding morphisms gives rise to the weight. Hence the probabilistic weights live within the category of processes. J. von Neumann. Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik. Springer-Verlag (1932). English translation in Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton University Press (1955). S. Abramsky and B. Coecke. A categorical semantics of quantum protocols. In the proceedings of LiCS'04 (2004). An extended version is available at arXiv:quant-ph/0402130 A more reader friendly version entitled `Quantum information flow, concretely, abstractly' is at http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/Bob/Papers/QPL.pdf
Symmetry in quantum mechanicsRoughly speaking, a symmetry of some mathematical object is an invertible transformation that leaves all relevant structure as it is.Thus a symmetry of a set is just a bijection (as sets have no further structure, whence invertibility is the only demand on a symmetry), a symmetry of a topological space is a homeomorphism, a symmetry of a Banach space is a linear isometric isomorphism, and, crucially important for this chapter, a symmetry of a Hilbert space H is a unitary operator, i.e., a linear map u : H → H satisfying one and hence all of the following equivalent conditions:• u is invertible and preserves the inner product, i.e., uϕ, uψ = ϕ, ψ (ϕ, ψ ∈ H).The discussion of symmetries in quantum physics is based on the above idea, but the mathematically obvious choices need not be the physically relevant ones.Even in elementary quantum mechanics, where A = B(H), i.e., the C*-algebra of all bounded operators on some Hilbert space H, the concept of a symmetry is already diverse.The main structures whose symmetries we shall study in this chapter are:1.The normal pure state space P 1 (H), i.e., the set of one-dimensional projections on H, with transition probability τ : P 1 (H) × P 1 (H) → [0, 1] defined by (2.44).2. The normal state space D(H), i.e. the convex set of density operators ρ on H. The self-adjoint operators B(H)sa on H, seen as a Jordan algebra (see below).4. The effects E (H) = [0, 1] B(H) , seen as a convex partially ordered set (poset). 5.The projections P(H) on H, seen as an orthocomplemented lattice.6.The unital commutative C*-subalgebras C (B(H)) of B(H), seen as a poset.Each of these structures comes with its own notion of a symmetry, but the main point of this chapter will be to show these notions are equivalent, corresponding in all cases to either unitary or-surprisingly-anti-unitary operators, both merely defined up to a phase.The latter subtlety will open the world of projective unitary group representation to quantum mechanics (without which the existence of spin-1 2 particles such as electrons, and therewith also of ourselves, would be impossible).
It is usually taken for granted that the natural mathematical framework for quantum mechanics is the theory of Hilbert spaces, where pure states of a quantum system correspond to complex vectors of unit length. These vectors can be combined to create more general states expressed in terms of positive semidefinite matrices of unit trace called density operators. A density operator tells us everything we know about a quantum system. In particular, it specifies a unique probability for any measurement outcome. Thus, to fully appreciate quantum mechanics as a statistical model for physical phenomena, it is necessary to understand the basic properties of its set of states. Studying the convex geometry of quantum states provides important clues as to why the theory is expressed most naturally in terms of complex amplitudes. At the very least, it gives us a new perspective into thinking about structure of quantum mechanics. \n \n \nThis thesis is concerned with the structure of quantum state space obtained from the geometry of the convex set of probability distributions for a special class of measurements called symmetric informationally complete (SIC) measurements. In this context, quantum mechanics is seen as a particular restriction of a regular simplex, where the state space is postulated to carry a symmetric set of states called SICs, which are associated with equiangular lines in a complex vector space. The analysis applies specifically to 3-dimensional quantum systems or qutrits, which is the simplest nontrivial case to consider according to Gleason's theorem. It includes a full characterization of qutrit SICs and includes specific proposals for implementing them using linear optics. The infinitely many qutrit SICs are classified into inequivalent families according to the Clifford group, where equivalence is defined by geometrically invariant numbers called triple products. The multiplication of SIC projectors is also used to define structure coefficients, which are convenient for elucidating some additional structure possessed by SICs, such as the Lie algebra associated with the operator basis defined by SICs, and a linear dependency structure inherited from the Weyl-Heisenberg symmetry. After describing the general one-to-one correspondence between density operators and SIC probabilities, many interesting features of the set of qutrits are described, including an elegant formula for its pure states, which reveals a permutation symmetry related to the structure of a finite affine plane, the exact rotational equivalence of different SIC probability spaces, the shape of qutrit state space defined by the radial distance of the boundary from the maximally mixed state, and a comparison of the 2-dimensional cross-sections of SIC probabilities to known results. Towards the end, the representation of quantum states in terms of SICs is used to develop a method for reconstructing quantum theory from the postulate of maximal consistency, and a procedure for building up qutrit state space from a finite set of points corresponding to a Hesse configuration in Hilbert space is sketched briefly.
Abstract Various topics concerning the entanglement of composite quantum systems are considered with particular emphasis concerning the strict relations of such a problem with the one of attributing objective properties to the constituents. In particular we will focus our attention to composite quantum systems composed of identical constituents, with the purpose of dealing with subtle issues, which have never been adequately discussed in the literature, originating from the true indistinguishability of the subsystems involved.
Abstract The sandwiched Rényi divergences of two finite-dimensional density operators quantify their asymptotic distinguishability in the strong converse domain. This establishes the sandwiched Rényi divergences as the operationally relevant ones among the infinitely many quantum extensions of the classical Rényi divergences for Rényi parameter α>1 α > 1 . The known proof of this goes by showing that the sandwiched Rényi divergence coincides with the regularized measured Rényi divergence, which in turn is proved by asymptotic pinching, a fundamentally finite-dimensional technique. Thus, while the notion of the sandwiched Rényi divergences was extended recently to density operators on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space (in fact, even for states of an arbitrary von Neumann algebra), these quantities were so far lacking an operational interpretation similar to the finite-dimensional case, and it has also been open whether they coincide with the regularized measured Rényi divergences. In this paper we fill this gap by answering both questions in the positive for density operators on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space, using a simple finite-dimensional approximation technique. We also initiate the study of the sandwiched Rényi divergences, and the related problem of the strong converse exponent, for pairs of positive semi-definite operators that are not necessarily trace-class (this corresponds to considering weights in a general von Neumann algebra setting). This is motivated by the need to define conditional Rényi entropies in the infinite-dimensional setting, while it might also be interesting from the purely mathematical point of view of extending the concept of Rényi (and other) divergences to settings beyond the standard one of positive trace-class operators (positive normal functionals in the von Neumann algebra setting). In this spirit, we also discuss the definition and some properties of the more general family of Rényi (α,z) ( α , z ) -divergences of positive semi-definite operators on an infinite-dimensional separable Hilbert space.