Summing free unitary Brownian motions with applications to quantum information

Abstract

Motivated by quantum information theory, we introduce a dynamical random state built out of the sum of $k \geq 2$ independent unitary Brownian motions. In the large size limit, its spectral distribution equals, up to a normalising factor, that of the free Jacobi process associated with a single self-adjoint projection with trace $1/k$. Using free stochastic calculus, we extend this equality to the radial part of the free average of $k$ free unitary Brownian motions and to the free Jacobi process associated with two self-adjoint projections with trace $1/k$, provided the initial distributions coincide. In the single projection case, we derive a binomial-type expansion of the moments of the free Jacobi process which extends to any $k \geq 3$ the one derived in \cite {DHH} in the special case $k=2$. Doing so give rise to a non normal (except for $k=2$) operator arising from the splitting of a self-adjoint projection into the convex sum of $k$ unitary operators. This binomial expansion is then used to derive a pde for the moment generating function of this non normal operator and for which we determine the corresponding characteristic curves.