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arXiv:quant-ph/0204161

Stochastic quantum process

Jerzy Stryla

Published Apr 28, 2002• 0 citations
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Abstract

I propose to treat quantum evolution as a stochastic process consisting from a sequence of doubly stochastic matrices, which naturally arise in the generalized quantum evolution. Then it is proved that the law of non-decreasing entropy is fulfilled and that the law characterizes doubly stochastic matrices. Finally, an application of the model to support the generalized second law of black hole thermodynamics and a relation to the quantum histories formulation of quantum physics appear.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0204161

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I propose to treat quantum evolution as a stochastic process consisting from a sequence of doubly stochastic matrices, which naturally arise in the generalized quantum evolution. Then it is proved that the law of non-decreasing entropy is fulfilled and that the law characterizes doubly stochastic matrices. Finally, an application of the model to support the generalized second law of black hole thermodynamics and a relation to the quantum histories formulation of quantum physics appear.
Abstract We present a Gedankenexperiment that leads to a violation of detailed balance if quantum mechanical transition probabilities are treated in the usual way by applying Fermi’s “golden rule”. This Gedankenexperiment introduces a collection of two-level systems that absorb and emit radiation randomly through non-reciprocal coupling to a waveguide, as realized in specific chiral quantum optical systems. The non-reciprocal coupling is modeled by a hermitean Hamiltonian and is compatible with the time-reversal invariance of unitary quantum dynamics. Surprisingly, the combination of non-reciprocity with probabilistic radiation processes entails negative entropy production. Although the considered system appears to fulfill all conditions for Markovian stochastic dynamics, such a dynamics violates the Clausius inequality, a formulation of the second law of thermodynamics. Several implications concerning the interpretation of the quantum mechanical formalism are discussed.
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.
Abstract The ontological status of time remains unresolved in fundamental physics. In quantum mechanics, time appears as an external classical parameter, whereas in general relativity it is dynamical and intertwined with spacetime geometry. Canonical approaches to quantum gravity, most notably the Wheeler–DeWitt formulation, eliminate time altogether, leading to the well-known “problem of time.” These tensions motivate frameworks in which time is not fundamental but emergent. In this work, we propose a discrete, update-based framework in which the universe evolves through a sequence of global quantum states indexed by an abstract update parameter rather than by a physical time coordinate. Evolution is formulated as a completely positive, trace-preserving (CPTP) quantum channel acting on the universal density operator, ensuring exact conservation of probability and global quantum information at every update. The framework is deliberately conservative: it preserves the formal structure of quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, enforces vacuum stability, and supports global conservation laws without introducing new dynamical postulates. Within this setting, time emerges relationally at the level of subsystems. As subsystems become increasingly entangled with their environments, entropy gradients arise that define an effective arrow of time, closely aligned with the thermodynamic arrow. The resulting temporal flow is relative, statistical, and observer-dependent, while the global evolution remains information-preserving and, in the closed-system limit, reversible. We explore the implications of this framework for cosmology and black hole physics. The Big Bang is reinterpreted as an initial quantum state rather than a singular beginning of time, avoiding temporal singularities. Black hole evaporation is shown to be compatible with unitary evolution when the full quantum state is considered, naturally reproducing the expected Page curve and resolving the apparent information paradox. Overall, the framework provides a coherent, minimal setting in which time, irreversibility, and cosmological history emerge from quantum correlations rather than from a fundamental temporal background.
In this article we define and build the one method of description of stochastic evolution of a physical quantum system.For each quantum state U E ω ∈ we construct the probability measure ω µ in the space ( ) , U P S , where U P is the space of the pure states of the quantum system, S the Borel σ -algebra in U P .Farther, for any Hermit's positive element with norm 1 u = , in the C * -algebra of observables U , we define the probability measure u µ on the set of states U E .If strongly conti- nuous group { } t α of * automorphisms on U describes the evolution of struc- ture of observables, according to this, we have a picture of evolution of distribution of states of quantum system relatively to each observable u .