Suppose a single qubit is repeatedly prepared and evolved under imperfectly-controlled conditions. A drunk model represents uncontrolled interactions on each experimental trial as random or stochastic terms in the qubits Hamiltonian operator. Time evolution of states is generated by a stochastic differential equation whose sample paths evolve according to the Schrödinger equation. For models with Gaussian white noise which is independent of the qubits state, the expectation value of the solution obeys a master equation which is identical to the high-temperature limit of the Bloch equation. Drunk models predict that experimental data can appear consistent with decoherence even if qubit states evolve by unitary transformations. Examples are shown in which reversible evolution appears to cause irreversible information loss. This paradox is resolved by distinguishing between the true state of a system and the estimated state inferred from an experimental dataset.
Suppose a single qubit is repeatedly prepared and evolved under imperfectly-controlled conditions. A drunk model represents uncontrolled interactions on each experimental trial as random or stochastic terms in the qubits Hamiltonian operator. Time evolution of states is generated by a stochastic differential equation whose sample paths evolve according to the Schrödinger equation. For models with Gaussian white noise which is independent of the qubits state, the expectation value of the solution obeys a master equation which is identical to the high-temperature limit of the Bloch equation. Drunk models predict that experimental data can appear consistent with decoherence even if qubit states evolve by unitary transformations. Examples are shown in which reversible evolution appears to cause irreversible information loss. This paradox is resolved by distinguishing between the true state of a system and the estimated state inferred from an experimental dataset.
With a choice of boundary conditions for solutions of the Schrödinger equation, state vectors and density operators even for closed systems evolve asymmetrically in time. For open systems, standard quantum mechanics consequently predicts irreversibility and signatures of the extrinsic arrow of time. The result is a new framework for the treatment of decoherence, not based on a reduced dynamics or a master equation. As an application, using a general model we quantitatively match previously puzzling experimental results and can conclude that they are the measurable consequence of the indistinguishability of separate, uncontrolled interactions between systems and their environment.
Beginning with the statistical description of the results of a duplicated experiment as a set of configurations of some observables tagether with frequencies of occurrence of each configuration it is shown that an evolution of the system by a stochastic process is obtained when the conditioning parameters of the experiment are altered.It is then shown that any such stochastic process has a representation in terms of linear operators in an abstract vector space with a state vector evolving by an isometric operator S and commuting Hermitian operators representing observables which evolve by another, unitary, operator U.This has the structure of conventional quantum theory as in the interaction, or Dirac picture, but here S is not unitary as in conventional theory.This is shown to yield a matrix of transition probabilities that is not doubly stochastic as in conventional theory and hence the Pauli master equation does not follow.All implications of this completely irreversible quantum theory have not yet been fully explored, but it points to a new viewpoint in irreversible thermod ynamics.
Introduction This chapter gives the physical and mathematical basis of decoherence in quantum systems, with particular emphasis on its importance in quantum information theory and quantum computation. We assume that the reader is already familiar with the basics of quantum mechanics, such as wave functions, the Schrödinger equation, and Hilbert spaces, which are covered in standard textbooks. Nevertheless, all basic concepts will be at least briefly defined and described. A working knowledge of graduate-level linear algebra and calculus is also assumed. In quantum information processing, the term decoherence is often used loosely to describe any kind of noise that can affect a quantum system. This can include sources of noise that seem, qualitatively, to be quite different from each other. These noise sources include: (i) Random driving forces from the environment (e.g., Brownian motion). (ii) Interactions that produce entanglement between the system and the environment. (iii) Statistical imprecision in the experimental controls on the system (e.g., timing errors, frequency fluctuations, etc.). Remarkably, all of these sources of noise can be described by an almost identical mathematical framework, in which pure quantum states can evolve into mixed quantum states, and the quantum effects necessary for information processing – interference, entanglement, and reversible evolution – are disrupted. The chapter begins by examining a highly schematic model of decoherence, involving systems of qubits, but uses this model to present the mathematical formalism used in describing more realistic systems as well.
We investigate the evolution of a single qubit subject to a continuous unitary ``free'' dynamics and an additional interrupting influence which occurs periodically. One may imagine a dynamically evolving closed quantum system which becomes open at certain times. The interrupting influence is represented by an operation, which is assumed to equivalently describe a nonselective weak measurement. It may be decomposed into the action of a positive operator, which in the case of a measurement represents the pure measurement part, followed by a unitary backaction depending on the result of the measurement (feedback). Equations of motion for the state evolution are derived in the form of difference equations. In the lowest order, the stochastic feedbacks cause a modification of the ``free'' Hamiltonian by an additional appropriately averaged Hamiltonian. The positive operator specifies a decoherence rate and results in a decoherence term. Two higher-order terms are discussed. One shows decoherence induced by the stochastic feedbacks and the other represents generalized friction. The selective evolution is investigated. In order to bridge the gap between sequential and continuous measurements, the continuum limit to a master equation is performed. Additional correcting higher-order terms are worked out in the Appendixes.
We analyze the information that one can learn about the state of a quantum two-level system, i.e. a qubit, when probed weakly by a nearby detector. In particular, we focus on the case when the qubit Hamiltonian and the qubit's operator being probed by the detector do not commute. Because the qubit's state keeps evolving while being probed and because the measurement data is mixed with detector-related background noise, one might expect the detector to fail in this case. We show, however, that under suitable conditions and by proper analysis of the measurement data useful information about the state of the qubit can be extracted. It turns out that the measurement basis is stochastically determined every time the experiment is repeated. We analyze in detail the probability distributions that govern the choice of measurement bases. We also analyze the information acquisition rate and show that it is largely unaffected by the apparent conflict between the measurement and intrinsic qubit dynamics. We discuss the relation between our analysis and the stochastic master equation that describes the evolution of the qubit's state under the influence of measurement and decoherence. In particular, we write down a stochastic equation that encompasses the usual stochastic master equation for the evolution of the qubit's density matrix and additionally contains the measurement information that can be extracted from the observed signal.
The title of the present dissertation Decoherence in Quantum Network sounds very general and all-inclusive. Indeed it embraces two topics (decoherence and quantum network) from the area of Quantum Mechanics each of which is described in all respects by a huge literature developed in the last three decades [...]. Quantum decoherence, as the name lets it mean, is the mechanism that makes a quantum system loose its coherence properties, and with them the capability of giving rise to interference phenomena or to other interesting quantum effects [...]. The key idea promoted by decoherence is the insight that realistic quantum systems are never isolated, but are immersed in the surrounding environment and interact continuously with it [...]. As an example one may consider a two-level quantum system (i.e. a quantum bit, usually shortened with a terminology from information science to \\qubit" ) in contact with a wide environment. Hence, quantum systems are open systems, and continuously interact or exchange information with an external environment whose degrees of freedom are too numerous to be monitored. The resulting correlation between the system and the environment spoils quantum coherence and brings about the transition from a pure quantum state to a mixture of quantum state resulting a classical state. To describe decoherence different kind of approaches can be used (for example Master equation, random matrix, etc). A quantum network typically consists of a number of quantum objects (e.g., atoms, ions, quantum dots, cavities, etc.), to be referred to hereafter as the sites or the nodes of the network. They can interact and the interactions (or their correlations) will be usually described by the edges of a graph. Quantum networks can address different information processing tasks. For instance a quantum state can be transferred from qubit to qubit down a chain solely due to the interactions, that is according to the laws of quantum physics [...]. Quantum networks offer us new opportunities and phenomena as compared to classical networks. An extension to large scale of the idea of a quantum network could lead to a futurible quantum internet [...]. The study of networks has traditionally been the territory of graph theory [...], also with the advent of their quantum versions. Within simple quantum network model information processing is usually described by assuming perfect control of the underlying graph. However, this is not much realistic since randomness is often present and it leads to decoherence effects [...]. In contrast, the conservation of coherence is essential for any quantum information process [...], hence there is a persistent interest in decoherence effects in quantum networks, which motivate us to study models for describing such noisy effects. We consider a simple model of quantum network, employing qubits (spin-1/2 particles) attached to the nodes of an underlying graph and we study the simplest task, namely information storage (on a single and two qubits), when the graph randomly changes in time. Actually we randomly add edges to an initially disconnected graph according to the Gilbert model characterized by a weighting parameter ex [...] and in an identically and independent way at each time step. We find that by increasing ex the dynamics of relevant quantities like fidelity, entropy or concurrence, gradually transforms from damped to damped oscillatory and finally to purely oscillatory. That leads to the paper [see, Information dissipation in random quantum networks, by U. Farooq and S. Mancini, OSID 21(3), 1450004, 2014]. We also study a system composed by pairs of qubits attached to each node of a linear chain, a model that stems from quantum dot arrays. Here we use the approach of evolution with a stochastic Hamiltonian to describe the noisy effects. We then evaluate the effect of two most common disorders, namely exchange coupling and hyperfine interaction fluctuations, in adiabatic preparation of ground state in such model. We show that the adiabatic ground state preparation is highly robust against these disorders making the chain a good analog simulator. Moreover, we also study the adiabatic information transfer, using singlet-triplet states, across the chain. In contrast to ground state preparation the transfer mechanism is highly affected by disorders. This suggested that for communication tasks across such chains adiabatic evolution is not as effective and quantum quenches would be preferable. That leads to the paper [see, Adiabatic many-body state preparation and information transfer in quantum dot arrays, by U. Farooq, A. Bayat, S. Mancini and S. Bose Phys. Rev. B 91, 134303, 2015]. The present work is organized as follows. In chapter 1, we shall give a survey of the various types of approach which can be employed to analyse the dynamics of open quantum systems that leads to decoherence effects. In chapter 2, we shall give a general description about quantum network and its possible applications. In chapter 3, we shall discuss the problem of quantum state transfer in qubit network and shall give a brief overview of some scheme that enable nearly prefect state transfer. In chapter 4, we shall discuss singlet-triplet networks, that is networks having on each site a pair of (generally entangled) qubit. Then within this framework we propose a model stemming from quantum dot array. There we shall address the problem of ground state preparation and state transfer. Finally we shall describe the inherent entanglement of the ground state of strongly correlated systems can be exploited for both classical and quantum communications. In chapter 5, we shall propose a decoherence model for qubit networks based on edges representing XY interactions randomly added to a disconnected graph accordingly to a suitable probability distribution. In this way we shall describe dissipation of information initially localize in single or two qubits all over the network. In chapter 6 we shall model the noisy effects in the quantum dot array introduced in chapter 4 and investigate their consequences on the preparation of ground state and quantum state transfer mechanism. Finally we shall draw conclusions.