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arXiv:quant-ph/0212135 · Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

A note on the correspondence between qubit quantum operations and special relativity

Pablo J. Arrighi, Christophe Patricot

Published May 8, 2003• 15 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We exploit a well-known isomorphism between complex Hermitian 2 × 2 matrices and 4 , which yields a convenient real vector representation of qubit states. Because these do not need to be normalized we find that they map onto a Minkowskian future cone in 1,3 , whose vertical cross-sections are nothing but Bloch spheres. Pure states are represented by light-like vectors, unitary operations correspond to special orthogonal transforms about the axis of the cone, positive operations correspond to pure Lorentz boosts. We formalize the equivalence between the generalized measurement formalism on qubit states and the Lorentz transformations of special relativity, or more precisely elements of the restricted Lorentz group together with future-directed null boosts. The note ends with a discussion of the equivalence and some of its possible consequences.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/36/20/101

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We exploit a well-known isomorphism between complex Hermitian 2 × 2 matrices and 4 , which yields a convenient real vector representation of qubit states. Because these do not need to be normalized we find that they map onto a Minkowskian future cone in 1,3 , whose vertical cross-sections are nothing but Bloch spheres. Pure states are represented by light-like vectors, unitary operations correspond to special orthogonal transforms about the axis of the cone, positive operations correspond to pure Lorentz boosts. We formalize the equivalence between the generalized measurement formalism on qubit states and the Lorentz transformations of special relativity, or more precisely elements of the restricted Lorentz group together with future-directed null boosts. The note ends with a discussion of the equivalence and some of its possible consequences.
We represent generalized density matrices of a d-complex dimensional quantum system as a subcone of a real pointed cone of revolution in Rd2,{R}^{{d}^{2}},Rd2, or indeed a Minkowskian cone in ${E}^{{1,d}^{2}\ensuremath{-}1}.$ Generalized pure states correspond to certain future-directed lightlike vectors of ${E}^{{1,d}^{2}\ensuremath{-}1}.$ This extension of the generalized Bloch sphere enables us to cater for non-trace-preserving quantum operations, and in particular to view the per-outcome effects of generalized measurements. We show that these consist of the product of an orthogonal transform about the axis of the cone of revolution and a positive real linear transform. We give detailed formulas for the one-qubit case and express the post-measurement states in terms of the initial-state vectors and measurement vectors. We apply these results in order to find the information gain versus disturbance trade-off in the case of two equiprobable pure states. Thus we recover Fuchs and Peres's formula in an elegant manner.
We establish a geometric generalization of the Bloch sphere for two-level quantum systems with non-Hermitian Hamiltonians using the Spacetime Algebra (STA) formulation. By lifting the state density operator from the even subalgebra to the full STA, we show that the state space expands from the unit 2-sphere to a future light cone. The non-unitary time evolution generated by a general non-Hermitian Hamiltonian corresponds to proper orthochronous Lorentz transformations on the null vectors. We classify the Hamiltonian dynamics into four distinct geometric classes: spatial rotations (corresponding to PT\mathcal{PT}PT-symmetric systems), pure boosts (anti-PT\mathcal{PT}PT-symmetric systems), null rotations (exceptional points), and general mixtures. We also use this formulation to study several results from PT-symmetric quantum mechanics, including the topological features of the exceptional points.
While the Bloch sphere provides a canonical geometric representation for qubits, its generalization to pure qudit states (d>2d>2d>2) is not unique. This representation can be extended following two different approaches: increasing the number of points, as in the Majorana representation, or using a single point but in a space of larger dimension, as in the generalized Bloch representation. In this work, we compare these representations of pure qudit states by finding explicit analytical relations between them. In particular, a general formula of the Bloch vector in terms of the Majorana points of a given state is provided. We also analyze some suitable extensions of these representations in the case of pure permutation-symmetric two- and three-qubit states, deriving the corresponding relation between them. These analytical results allow us to study, from a geometric point of view, quantum correlations of special classes of two-qubit states.
We generalize our previous results of universal linear manipulations [Phys. Rev. A 63, 032304 (2001)] to investigate three types of nonlinear qubit transformations using measurement and quantum-based schemes. First, nonlinear rotations are studied. We rotate different parts of a Bloch sphere in opposite directions about the z axis. The second transformation is a map that sends a qubit to its orthogonal state. We consider the case in which the orthogonal state is applied to only a partial area of a Bloch sphere. We also study nonlinear general transformation, i.e., $(\ensuremath{\vartheta},\ensuremath{\varphi})\ensuremath{\rightarrow}(\ensuremath{\vartheta}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha},\ensuremath{\varphi}),$ again applied only to part of the Bloch sphere. In order to achieve these three operations, we consider different measurement preparations and derive the optimal average (instead of universal) quantum unitary transformations. We also introduce a simple method for a qubit measurement and its application to other cases.
The orthogonal group admits projective unitary representations which do not derive from true representations, and we describe a fundamental family of such representations. As a consequence there exist quantum systems that change state under a full turn rotation along a given axis (although a second full turn rotation brings them back to the original state). Amazingly, Nature has made essential use of this structure. In order to study the projective representations of the orthogonal and Lorentz groups, it is convenient to replace them by “better versions“; the groups SU(2) and SL(2,C), which are groups of 2 by 2 matrices, and for which projective representations are simply related to true representations. The orthogonal and Lorentz groups are then images of these groups under two-to-one group homomorphisms, and it is these isomorphisms that concentrate the behavior of their projective representations. Finally we describe how the introduction of parity in our theory leads to the discovery of the Dirac matrices.
An equivalence is established between orthogonal pure state qubits on the Bloch sphere and massless Weyl spinors, when the Bloch vector is taken as the physical three-momentum. A family of unitary, coordinate dependent transformations is obtained which connects orthogonal combinations of the basis states of a two-level quantum system. It is shown that a subset of these transformations possesses the novel feature of effecting a point inversion by means of a rotation. For qubits, these transformations act as quantum NOT/parity gates, and also as flipping operators that exactly cancel decoherence in a dynamical decoupling setting. For Weyl spinors they provide, at the relativistic quantum level, a unitary symmetry transformation for the Weyl equations.