Gaussian unitary transformations are generated by quadratic Hamiltonians, i.e., Hamiltonians containing quadratic terms in creations and annihilation operators, and are heavily used in many areas of quantum physics, ranging from quantum optics and condensed matter theory to quantum information and quantum field theory in curved spacetime. They are known to form a representation of the metaplectic and spin group for bosons and fermions, respectively. These groups are the double covers of the symplectic and special orthogonal group, respectively, and our goal is to analyze the behavior of the sign ambiguity that one needs to deal with when moving between these groups and their double cover. We relate this sign ambiguity to expectation values of the form
⟨0∣exp(−iH^)∣0⟩, where
∣0⟩ is a Gaussian state and
H^ an arbitrary quadratic Hamiltonian. We provide closed formulas for
⟨0∣exp(−iH^)∣0⟩ and show how we can efficiently describe group multiplications in the double cover without the need of going to a faithful representation on an exponentially large or even infinite-dimensional space. Our construction relies on an explicit parametrization of these two groups (metaplectic, spin) in terms of symplectic and orthogonal group elements together with a twisted U(1) group.
Kitaev's lattice models are usually defined as representations of the Drinfeld quantum double $D(H)=H\bowtie H^{*\text{op}} $, as an example of a double cross product quantum group. We propose a new version based instead on
M(H)=Hcop▶◃H as an example of Majid's bicrossproduct quantum group, related by semidualisation or `quantum Born reciprocity' to
D(H). Given a finite-dimensional Hopf algebra
H, we show that a quadrangulated oriented surface defines a representation of the bicrossproduct quantum group
Hcop▶◃H. Even though the bicrossproduct has a more complicated and entangled coproduct, the construction of this new model is relatively natural as it relies on the use of the covariant Hopf algebra actions. Working locally, we obtain an exactly solvable Hamiltonian for the model and provide a definition of the ground state in terms of a tensor network representation.
Abstract Kitaev’s lattice models are usually defined as representations of the Drinfeld quantum double D(H) = H ⋈ H*op, as an example of a double cross product quantum group. We propose a new version based instead on M(H) = Hcop ⧑ H as an example of Majid’s bicrossproduct quantum group, related by semidualisation or ‘quantum Born reciprocity’ to D(H). Given a finite-dimensional Hopf algebra H, we show that a quadrangulated oriented surface defines a representation of the bicrossproduct quantum group Hcop ⧑ H. Even though the bicrossproduct has a more complicated and entangled coproduct, the construction of this new model is relatively natural as it relies on the use of the covariant Hopf algebra actions. Working locally, we obtain an exactly solvable Hamiltonian for the model and provide a definition of the ground state in terms of a tensor network representation.