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Fidelity of quantum blobs

Andreas Henriksson

Published Apr 20, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum blobs are the smallest units of phase space that are compatible with the Robertson-Schrödinger indeterminacy relation and invariant under general symplectic transformations [1]. In this article, the distinguishability between pairs of quantum blobs, as measured by quantum fidelity, is defined on complex phase space. Fidelity is physically interpreted as the probability that the pair are mistaken for each other upon a measurement. The mathematical representation is based on the concept of symplectic capacity in symplectic topology. The fidelity is the absolute square of the complex-valued overlap between the symplectic capacities of the pair of quantum blobs. The symplectic capacity for a given quantum blob, onto any conjugate plane of degrees of freedom, is postulated to be bounded from below by the Gromov width h/2. This generalizes the Liouville theorem in classical mechanics, which states that the volume of a region of phase space is invariant under the Hamiltonian flow of the system, by constraining the shape of the flow. It is shown that for closed Hamiltonian systems, the Schrödinger equation is the mathematical representation for the conservation of fidelity.

DOI
10.32388/dt3urt.2

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Quantum blobs are the smallest units of phase space that are compatible with the Robertson-Schrödinger indeterminacy relation and invariant under general symplectic transformations [1]. In this article, the distinguishability between pairs of quantum blobs, as measured by quantum fidelity, is defined on complex phase space. Fidelity is physically interpreted as the probability that the pair are mistaken for each other upon a measurement. The mathematical representation is based on the concept of symplectic capacity in symplectic topology. The fidelity is the absolute square of the complex-valued overlap between the symplectic capacities of the pair of quantum blobs. The symplectic capacity for a given quantum blob, onto any conjugate plane of degrees of freedom, is postulated to be bounded from below by the Gromov width h/2. This generalizes the Liouville theorem in classical mechanics, which states that the volume of a region of phase space is invariant under the Hamiltonian flow of the system, by constraining the shape of the flow. It is shown that for closed Hamiltonian systems, the Schrödinger equation is the mathematical representation for the conservation of fidelity.
The distinguishability between pairs of quantum blobs, as measured by quantum fidelity, is defined on complex phase space. Fidelity is physically interpreted as the probability that the pair are mistaken for each other upon a measurement. The mathematical representation is based on the concept of symplectic capacity in symplectic topology. The fidelity is the absolute square of the complex-valued overlap between the symplectic capacities of the pair of states. The symplectic capacity for a given state, onto any conjugate plane of degrees of freedom, is postulated to be bounded from below by the Gromov width h/2. This generalizes the Liouville theorem in classical mechanics, which states that the volume of a region of phase space is invariant under the Hamiltonian flow of the system, by constraining the shape of the flow. It is shown that for closed Hamiltonian systems, the Schrödinger equation is the mathematical representation for the conservation of fidelity.
The distinguishability between pairs of quantum states, as measured by quantum fidelity, is formulated on phase space. The fidelity is physically interpreted as the probability that the pair are mistaken for each other upon an measurement. The mathematical representation is based on the concept of symplectic capacity in symplectic topology. The fidelity is the absolute square of the complex-valued overlap between the symplectic capacities of the pair of states. The symplectic capacity for a given state, onto any conjugate plane of degrees of freedom, is postulated to be bounded from below by the Gromov width h/2. This generalize the Gibbs-Liouville theorem in classical mechanics, which state that the volume of a region of phase space is invariant under the Hamiltonian flow of the system, by constraining the shape of the flow. It is shown that for closed Hamiltonian systems, the Schroedinger equation is the mathematical representation for the conservation of fidelity.
We replace the usual notion of quantum cell from statistical mechanics by that of "quantum blob". A quantum blob is the transform, by a linaer symplectic transformation, of a phase space ball with radius equal to the square root of h-bar. The intersection of a quantum blob with any symplectic plane is an ellipse with area one half of h. This very special property, which is closed related to the principle of the symplectic camel, leads to a symplectic invariant statement of the uncertainty principle. We moreover prove that the average of a phase space Gaussian over a quantum blob is the Wigner transform of a minimum uncertainty Gaussian.
We apply the notion of polar duality from convex geometry to the study of quantum covariance ellipsoids in symplectic phase space. We consider in particular the case of “quantum blobs” introduced in previous work; quantum blobs are the smallest symplectic invariant regions of the phase space compatible with the uncertainty principle in its strong Robertson–Schrödinger form. We show that these phase space units can be characterized by a simple condition of reflexivity using polar duality, thus improving previous results. We apply these geometric constructions to the characterization of pure Gaussian states in terms of partial information on the covariance ellipsoid, which allows us to formulate statements related to symplectic tomography.
In earlier work, we introduced quantum blobs as minimum-uncertainty symplectic ellipsoids in phase space. These objects may be viewed as geometric monads in the Leibnizian sense, representing the elementary units of phase-space structure consistent with the uncertainty principle. We establish a one-to-one correspondence between such monads and generalized coherent states, represented by arbitrary non-degenerate Gaussian wave functions in configuration space. To each of these states, we associate a classs of Toeplitz operators that extends the standard anti-Wick quantization scheme. The mathematical and physical properties of these operators are analyzed, allowing for a generalized definition of density matrices within the phase-space formulation of quantum mechanics.
We extend the notion of quantum blob studied in previous work to excited states of the generalized harmonic oscillator in n dimensions. This extension is made possible by Fermi's observation in 1930 that the state of a quantum system may be defined in two different (but equivalent) ways, namely by its wavefunction Ψ or by a certain function g_{F} on phase space canonically associated with Ψ. We study Fermi's function when Ψ is a Gaussian (generalized coherent state). A striking result is that we can use the Ekeland--Hofer symplectic capacities to characterize the Fermi functions of the excited states of the generalized harmonic oscillator, leading to new insight on the relationship between symplectic topology and quantum mechanics.