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Bulletin of the American Physical Society

Constructing the Bloch sphere without quantum mechanics

Michael D. Mazurek, Matthew F. Pusey, Robert W. Spekkens, Kevin J. Resch

Published Mar 13, 2017• 0 citations
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An arbitrarily dense discretization of the Bloch sphere of complex Hilbert states is constructed, where points correspond to bit strings of fixed finite length. Number-theoretic properties of trigonometric functions (not part of the quantum-theoretic canon) are used to show that this constructive discretized representation incorporates many of the defining characteristics of quantum systems: completementarity, uncertainty relationships and (with a simple Cartesian product of discretized spheres) entanglement. Unlike Meyer's earlier discretization of the Bloch Sphere, there are no orthonormal triples, hence the Kocken-Specker theorem is not nullified. A physical interpretation of points on the discretized Bloch sphere is given in terms of ensembles of trajectories on a dynamically invariant fractal set in state space, where states of physical reality correspond to points on the invariant set. This deterministic construction provides a new way to understand the violation of the Bell inequality without violating statistical independence or factorization, where these conditions are defined solely from states on the invariant set. In this finite representation, there is an upper limit to the number of qubits that can be entangled, a property with potential experimental consequences.
An arbitrarily dense discretisation of the Bloch sphere of complex Hilbert states is constructed, where points correspond to bit strings of fixed finite length. Number-theoretic properties of trigonometric functions (not part of the quantum-theoretic canon) are used to show that this constructive discretised representation incorporates many of the defining characteristics of quantum systems: completementarity, uncertainty relationships and (with a simple Cartesian product of discretised spheres) entanglement. Unlike Meyer's earlier discretisation of the Bloch Sphere, there are no orthonormal triples, hence the Kocken-Specker theorem is not nullified. A physical interpretation of points on the discretised Bloch sphere is given in terms of ensembles of trajectories on a dynamically invariant fractal set in state space, where states of physical reality correspond to points on the invariant set. This deterministic construction provides a new way to understand the violation of the Bell inequality without violating statistical independence or factorisation, where these conditions are defined solely from states on the invariant set. In this finite representation there is an upper limit to the number of qubits that can be entangled, a property with potential experimental consequences.
Abstract We study an analogous Bloch sphere representation of higher-level quantum systems using the Heisenberg-Weyl operator basis. We introduce a parametrization method that will allow us to identify a real-valued Bloch vector for an arbitrary density operator. Before going into arbitrary d-level (d ≥ 3) quantum systems (qudits), we start our analysis with three-level ones (qutrits). It is well known that we need at least eight real parameters in the Bloch vector to describe arbitrary three-level quantum systems (qutrits). However, using our method we can divide these parameters into four weight, and four angular parameters, and find that the weight parameters are inducing a unit sphere in four-dimension. And, the four angular parameters determine whether a Bloch vector is physical. Therefore, unlike its qubit counterpart, the qutrit Bloch sphere does not exhibit a solid structure. Importantly, this construction allows us to define different properties of qutrits in terms of Bloch vector components. We also examine the two and three-dimensional sections of the sphere, which reveal a non-convex yet closed structure for physical qutrit states. Further, we apply our representation to derive mutually unbiased bases (MUBs), characterize unital maps for qutrits, and assess ensembles using the Hilbert-Schmidt and Bures metrics. Moreover, we extend this construction to qudits, showcasing its potential applicability beyond the qutrit scenario.