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Duality: maps versus states

Ingemar Bengtsson, Karol Życzkowski

Published May 11, 2006• 0 citations

Abstract

Good mathematicians see analogies. Great mathematicians see analogies between analogies. Stefan Banach We have already discussed the static structure of our ‘Quantum Town’ – the set of density matrices – on the one hand, and the set of all physically realizable processes which may occur in it on the other hand. Now we are going to reveal a quite remarkable property: the set of all possible ways to travel in the ‘Quantum Town’ is equivalent to a ‘Quantum Country’ – an appropriately magnified copy of the initial ‘Quantum Town’! More precisely, the set of all transformations which map the set of density matrices of size N into itself (dynamics) is identical to a subset of the set of density matrices of size N 2 (kinematics). From a mathematical point of view this relation is based on the Jamiołkowski isomorphism , analysed later in this chapter. Before discussing this intriguing duality, let us leave the friendly set of quantum operations and pay a short visit to a neighbouring land of maps, as yet unexplored, which are positive but not completely positive. Positive and decomposable maps Quantum transformations which describe physical processes are represented by completely positive (CP) maps. Why should we care about maps which are not CP? On the one hand it is instructive to realize that seemingly innocent transformations are not CP, and thus do not correspond to any physical process. On the other hand, as discussed in Chapter 15, positive but not completely positive maps provide a crucial tool in the investigation of quantum entanglement.

DOI: 10.1017/cbo9780511535048.012

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Good mathematicians see analogies. Great mathematicians see analogies between analogies. Stefan Banach We have already discussed the static structure of our ‘Quantum Town’ – the set of density matrices – on the one hand, and the set of all physically realizable processes which may occur in it on the other hand. Now we are going to reveal a quite remarkable property: the set of all possible ways to travel in the ‘Quantum Town’ is equivalent to a ‘Quantum Country’ – an appropriately magnified copy of the initial ‘Quantum Town’! More precisely, the set of all transformations which map the set of density matrices of size N into itself (dynamics) is identical to a subset of the set of density matrices of size N 2 (kinematics). From a mathematical point of view this relation is based on the Jamiołkowski isomorphism , analysed later in this chapter. Before discussing this intriguing duality, let us leave the friendly set of quantum operations and pay a short visit to a neighbouring land of maps, as yet unexplored, which are positive but not completely positive. Positive and decomposable maps Quantum transformations which describe physical processes are represented by completely positive (CP) maps. Why should we care about maps which are not CP? On the one hand it is instructive to realize that seemingly innocent transformations are not CP, and thus do not correspond to any physical process. On the other hand, as discussed in Chapter 15, positive but not completely positive maps provide a crucial tool in the investigation of quantum entanglement.

We investigate the space of quantum operations, as well as the larger space of maps which are positive, but not completely positive. A constructive criterion for decomposability is presented. A certain class of unistochastic operations, determined by unitary matrices of extended dimensionality, is defined and analyzed. Using the concept of the dynamical matrix and the Jamiołkowski isomorphism we explore the relation between the set of quantum operations (dynamics) and the set of density matrices acting on an extended Hilbert space (kinematics). An analogous relation is established between the classical maps and an extended space of the discrete probability distributions.

The structure of the set of density matrices, its linear transformations, generalized linear measurements, and entanglement are studied. The set of density matrices is shown to be a convex and stratified set with simplex and group symmetries. Generalized measurements for density matrices are shown to be reducible to one unitary transformation and one von Neumann measurement carried out with an ancillary system of fixed size. Linear maps of density matrices are considered and the volume of the set of maps is derived. Positive but not completely positive maps are studied in consideration of obtaining a test for entanglement in density matrices. Using the Jamiolkowski representation and Schmidt decomposition of the map eigen matrices, several properties of these maps are shown. An algebraic approach to constructing these positive but not completely positive maps is partially formulated. The positivity of the linear map describing the evolution of an open system and its dependence on the initialized to a zero-discord state, the evolution is shown to be given by a completely positive map. In quantum process tomography, the results obtained from a open system that is initially prepared using von Neumann measurements is shown to be described by a bi-linear map, not a linear map. A method for quantum process tomography is derived for qubit bi-linear maps. The difference between preparing states for an experiment by measurement and by stochastic process is analyzed, and it is shown that the two different methods will give fundamentally different outcomes.

Abstract In this chapter we visit the ‘church of the larger Hilbert space’: we take a closer look at the relationship of pure and mixed quantum states via purification, and discuss a similar connection between completely positive and trace-preserving (CPTP) maps and unitary dynamics on a larger Hilbert space. We show that such CPTP maps, which represent quantum channels, are equivalent to operations admitting a Kraus decomposition, as well as to unitary dynamics on a larger Hilbert space with factoring initial condition, the famous Stinespring dilation of quantum operations. In this context we introduce the Choi-Jamiołkowski isomorphism, which expresses a duality between maps between two Hilbert spaces and states on tensor products of these Hilbert spaces, and we review several important examples of quantum channels such as the dephasing channel, amplitude-damping channel, and depolarizing channel. Finally, we examine operations that are not possible in quantum theory, focusing on the no-cloning theorem.

The relations between dynamical maps and quantum states of bipartite systems are analyzed from the perspective of quantum conditional probability. In particular, we explore new interesting relations between completely positive maps, which correspond to quantum channels, and states of bipartite systems which correspond to correlations between the initial and final states. The new connection emerges in a natural way from the generalisation of the classical concept of conditional probability. We develop applications of these relations which prove to be very useful in both directions, either for the classification of positive maps which are not completely positive, the classification of non-decomposable dynamical maps or for the classification of positive partial transpose and entangled states.

We investigate the set (a) of positive, trace preserving maps acting on density matrices of size N and a sequence of its nested subsets: the sets of maps which are (b) decomposable, (c) completely positive, and (d) extended by identity impose positive partial transpose and (e) are superpositive. Working with the Hilbert–Schmidt (Euclidean) measure, we derive tight explicit two-sided bounds for the volumes of all five sets. A sample consequence is the fact that, as N increases, a generic positive map becomes not decomposable and, a fortiori, not completely positive. Due to the Jamiołkowski isomorphism, the results obtained for quantum maps are closely connected to similar relations between the volume of the set of quantum states and the volumes of its subsets (such as states with positive partial transpose or separable states) or supersets. Our approach depends on the systematic use of duality to derive quantitative estimates and on various tools of classical convexity, high-dimensional probability, and geometry of Banach spaces, some of which are not standard.