Abstract The Shannon information entropy sum is examined as systems comprised of two-level harmonic oscillator states are passed through dephasing and depolarization quantum channels. We show how the entropy sum increases as the dephasing parameter is increased. The interpretation here is a loss of information in the system as the quantum coherences are removed. This result and interpretation also holds in the depolarization channel as the system transits to the maximally mixed state. The increase in the entropy sum is associated with a delocalization of both position and momentum densities. The behaviour of phase-space Wigner functions and their Shannon entropies is also addressed. Wigner negativity is seen to decrease and disappear with an increase of the dephasing parameter. Here, Wigner negativity is associated with the presence of quantum coherences. The imaginary component of the Wigner function entropy is shown to capture the changes in Wigner negativity. On the other hand, Wigner functions with diagonal input density matrices are non-negative in the depolarization channel. Their real-valued Shannon entropies increase with the depolarization parameter as the system approaches the maximally mixed state. The mutual information between the Wigner function and the product of position and momentum space densities is used to probe the statistical correlation between position and momentum variables. This measure decreases in both channels as the parameter increases. Thus, there is a loss of correlation as quantum coherences are eliminated in the dephasing case, and as the system transits to the maximally mixed case in the depolarizing channel.
Abstract The Shannon information entropy sum is examined as systems comprised of two-level harmonic oscillator states are passed through dephasing and depolarization quantum channels. We show how the entropy sum increases as the dephasing parameter is increased. The interpretation here is a loss of information in the system as the quantum coherences are removed. This result and interpretation also holds in the depolarization channel as the system transits to the maximally mixed state. The increase in the entropy sum is associated with a delocalization of both position and momentum densities. The behaviour of phase-space Wigner functions and their Shannon entropies is also addressed. Wigner negativity is seen to decrease and disappear with an increase of the dephasing parameter. Here, Wigner negativity is associated with the presence of quantum coherences. The imaginary component of the Wigner function entropy is shown to capture the changes in Wigner negativity. On the other hand, Wigner functions with diagonal input density matrices are non-negative in the depolarization channel. Their real-valued Shannon entropies increase with the depolarization parameter as the system approaches the maximally mixed state. The mutual information between the Wigner function and the product of position and momentum space densities is used to probe the statistical correlation between position and momentum variables. This measure decreases in both channels as the parameter increases. Thus, there is a loss of correlation as quantum coherences are eliminated in the dephasing case, and as the system transits to the maximally mixed case in the depolarizing channel.
The time-dependent behaviour of harmonic oscillator squeezed states is examined from the viewpoint of position and momentum space Shannon entropies and their sum. Analytical expressions for these entropies are obtained from a symplectic group approach. The entropy sum returns to the entropic uncertainty bound at different time intervals, and is characterized by the presence of either a maximum (minimum) in the position space Shannon entropy and a minimum (maximum) in the momentum space one. The maximal value of the entropy sum is characterized by equality of position and momentum Shannon entropies. The transition of the entropy sum from the bound to its maximal value is studied, and relations between position and momentum space Shannon entropies are probed. The relation between the position and momentum space entropies is deformed as the value of the squeezing parameter increases. An analysis of the dependence of the Shannon entropies on the squeezing parameter shows different behaviours at different times. Both position and momentum space Shannon entropies exhibit a linear dependence on the parameter when their sum lies on the uncertainty bound. Here, the entropy sum is independent of the parameter. At other times, the relation between the entropies and squeezing parameter is non-linear, and extremal points are present. The entropy sum here is seen to be an increasing function of the parameter. Kullback–Leibler distances between squeezed and unsqueezed densities illustrate that the position or momentum space densities of the squeezed system can revert back to the unsqueezed ones during the time evolution. The phase-space Wigner function, entropy and mutual information are also examined and discussed. The statistical correlation as measured by mutual information is the entropy sum minus its value at the uncertainty bound.
The local structure present in Wigner and Husimi phase-space distributions and their marginals are studied and quantified via information-theoretic quantities. Shannon, R\'enyi, and cumulative residual entropies of the Wigner and Husimi distributions are examined in the ground and excited states of a harmonic oscillator. The entropies of the Wigner function marginals are lower than the corresponding entropies of the Husimi function marginals, which illustrates how the nodal structure present in the Wigner function is lost upon consideration of the Husimi function. Shannon and cumulative residual entropies of the Wigner function yield entropies which are complex valued. Absolute values and real components of these quantities increase with quantum number, displaying a behavior which is consistent with their real-valued Husimi function counterparts. This comportment is also similar to the real-valued R\'enyi entropies of the Wigner function. The entropies of the Wigner function are observed to be lower than the corresponding Husimi function ones, in agreement with the results for the marginals. The real components of the Wigner function entropies are seen to be closer to the uncertainty relation bound compared to the corresponding Husimi function entropies. These real components are also closer to the bound when contrasted to the entropic sum of the marginal densities. The R\'enyi or collision entropy of the Wigner function sits exactly on the bound. Related statistical correlation measures show that the position-momentum correlation is larger in the Wigner function compared to the Husimi function and increases with quantum number.
CONFINED HARMONIC OSCILLATOR.The aim of this study was a didactic presentation of the Shannon entropy in the quantum theory context, followed by application to the case of a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator in its ground state, both in the free case and confined case.The study of these systems allows us to highlight notions such as location or delocation of a particle, a possible interpretation that the Shannon entropy can adopt.The Shannon entropy in position (S x ) and momentum (S p ) spaces were calculated for both systems, beyond the entropic sum (S t = S x + S p ).With this procedure it was possible to identify trends in the behavior of the Shannon entropy (S x and S p ) and test the compliance of the entropic uncertainty relation (S t = S x + S p ≥ n(1 + ln(p))).
Abstract We first present the analytical solutions to the Schrödinger equation with the parity-restricted harmonic oscillator V ( x ) = 1 2 m ω 2 x 2 ( x > 0 ) and then calculate the Shannon information entropies S x n and S p n both in position space and in momentum space. It is interesting to find that the variation of the Shannon information entropy S p n in momentum space is different from our previous studies, i.e. the S p n first increases with the quantum number n and then decreases with the number n . This is a new and abnormal phenomenon and may be explained by the parity-restricted system. The BBM inequality is verified to be saturated, but the sum of the entropies first increases with the number n and then decreases with it. The entropy densities ρ s ( x ) and ρ s ( p ) are also demonstrated. We find that the Fisher entropy is exactly given by I F = 8 n + 6 , n = 0 , 1 , 2 , … .
The effects of bath coupling on an interacting two-particle quantum system are studied using tools from information theory. Shannon entropies of the one (reduced) and two-particle distribution functions in position, momentum and separable phase-space are examined. Results show that the presence of the bath leads to a delocalization of the distribution functions in position space, and a localization in momentum space. This can be interpreted as a loss of information in position space and a gain of information in momentum space. The entropy sum of the system, in the presence of a bath, is shown to be dependent on the strength of the interparticle potential and also on the strength of the coupling to the bath. The statistical correlation between the particles, and its dependence on the bath and interparticle potential, is examined using mutual information. A stronger repulsive potential between particles, in the presence of the bath, yields a smaller correlation between the particles positions, and a larger one between their momenta.
Abstract It is common knowledge that the Wigner function of a quantum state may admit negative values, so that it cannot be viewed as a genuine probability density. Here, we examine the difficulty in finding an entropy-like functional in phase space that extends to negative Wigner functions and then advocate the merits of defining a complex-valued entropy associated with any Wigner function. This quantity, which we call thecomplex Wigner entropy, is defined via the analytic continuation of Shannon’s differential entropy of the Wigner function in the complex plane. We show that the complex Wigner entropy enjoys interesting properties, especially its real and imaginary parts are both invariant under Gaussian unitaries (displacements, rotations, and squeezing in phase space). Its real part is physically relevant when considering the evolution of the Wigner function under a Gaussian convolution, while its imaginary part is simply proportional to the negative volume of the Wigner function. Finally, we define the complex-valued Fisher information of any Wigner function, which is linked (via an extended de Bruijn’s identity) to the time derivative of the complex Wigner entropy when the state undergoes Gaussian additive noise. Overall, it is anticipated that the complex plane yields a proper framework for analyzing the entropic properties of quasiprobability distributions in phase space.