The main goal of these notes is to give an introduction to the mathematics of quantum noise and some of its applications in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. We start with some reminders from the theory of classical stochastic processes. We then provide a brief overview of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, from the viewpoint of quantum probability and adopting the language of Hudson and Parthasarathy. We introduce quantum stochastic processes on a boson Fock space and their calculus. Whenever possible, we make connections with the relevant concepts in classical probability theory. As an application of the theory, we introduce the theory of open quantum systems, with emphasis on the physics and modeling aspects of these systems.
Extensions of Quantum Stochastic Calculus (S Attal) Quantum Ito Algebras: Axioms, Representations, Decompositions (V Belavkin) Free Probability for Probabilists (P Biane) Conditional Expectations on von Neumann Algebras (C Cecchini) Classical Probability Theory: An Outline of Stochastic Integrals and Diffusions (M Emery) Quantum Stochastic Differential Equations (F Fagnola) Canonical Commutation and Anticommutation Relations (M Fannes) Quantum and Classical Stochastic Calculus (A Holevo) An Introduction to Quantum Stochastic Calculus and Some of Its Applications (R Hudson) Stationary Processes in Quantum Probability (B Kummerer)
Stationary quantum stochastic process j is introduced as a *-homomorphism embedding an involutive graded algebra
K~=⊕i=1∞Ki into a ring of (abelian) cohomologies of the one-parameter group
α consisting of *-automorphisms of certain operator algebra in a Hilbert space such that every x from
Ki is translated into an additive
i−α-cocycle j(x). It is shown that (noncommutative) multiplicative markovian cocycle defines a perturbation of the stationary quantum stochastic process in the sense of such definition. The
E0-semigroup
β~ on the von Neumann algebra
N associated with the markovian perturbation of K-flow j posseses the restriction
β~∣N0,N0⊂N, which is conjugate to the flow of Powers shifts
β associated with j. It yields for
β~ an analogue of the Wold decomposition for classical stochastic process on completely nondeterministic and deterministic parts. The examples of quantum stationary stochastic processes on the algebras of canonical commutation, anticommutation and square of white noise relations are considered. In the model situation of the space
L2(R) all markovian cocycles of the group of shifts are described up to unitary equivalence of perturbations.