arXiv subjects

Christophe Patricot

Publications and source records attributed to Christophe Patricot.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2005

On Quantum Operations as Quantum States

We formalize the correspondence between quantum states and quantum operations isometrically, and harness its consequences. This correspondence was already implicit in the various proofs of the operator sum representation of Completely Positive-preserving linear maps; we go further and show that all of the important theorems concerning quantum operations can be derived directly from those concerning quantum states. As we do so the discussion first provides an elegant and original review of the main features of quantum operations. Next (in the second half of the paper) we find more results stemming from our formulation of the correspondence. Thus we provide a factorizability condition for quantum operations, and give two novel Schmidt-type decompositions of bipartite pure states. By translating the composition law of quantum operations, we define a group structure upon the set of totally entangled states. The question whether the correspondence is merely mathematical or can be given a physical interpretation is addressed throughout the text: we provide formulae which suggest quantum states inherently define a quantum operation between two of their subsystems, and which turn out to have applications in quantum cryptography. Keywords: Kraus, CP-maps, superoperators, extremality, trace-preserving, factorizable, triangular.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

A group theoretical approach to causal structures and positive energy on spacetimes

This article presents a precise description of the interplay between the symmetries of a quantum or classical theory with spacetime interpretation, and some of its physical properties relating to causality, horizons and positive energy. Our major result is that the existence of static metrics on spacetimes and that of positive energy representations of symmetry groups, are equivalent to the existence of particular Adjoint-invariant convex cones in the symmetry algebras. This can be used to study backgrounds of supergravity and string theories through their symmetry groups. Our formalism is based on Segal's approach to infinitesimal causal structures on manifolds. The Adjoint action in the symmetry group is shown to correspond to changes of inertial frames in the spacetime, whereas Adjoint-invariance encodes invariance under changes of observers. This allows us to give a group theoretical description of the horizon structure of spacetimes, and also to lift causal structures to the Hilbert spaces of quantum theories. Among other results, by setting up the Dirac procedure for the complexified universal algebra, we classify the physically inequivalent observables of quantum theories. We illustrate this by finding the different Hamiltonians for stationary observers in AdS_2.

hep-th↗

arXiv2003

Kaigorodov spaces and their Penrose limits

Kaigorodov spaces arise, after spherical compactification, as near horizon limits of M2, M5, and D3-branes with a particular pp-wave propagating in a world volume direction. We show that the uncompactified near horizon configurations K\times S are solutions of D=11 or D=10 IIB supergravity which correspond to perturbed versions of their AdS \times S analogues. We derive the Penrose-Gueven limits of the Kaigorodov space and the total spaces and analyse their symmetries. An Inonu-Wigner contraction of the Lie algebra is shown to occur, although there is a symmetry enhancement. We compare the results to the maximally supersymmetric CW spaces found as limits of AdS\times S spacetimes: the initial gravitational perturbation on the brane and its near horizon geometry remains after taking non-trivial Penrose limits, but seems to decouple. One particuliar limit yields a time-dependent homogeneous plane-wave background whose string theory is solvable, while in the other cases we find inhomogeneous backgrounds.

hep-th↗

arXiv2003

A Note on the correspondence between Qubit Quantum Operations and Special Relativity

We exploit a well-known isomorphism between complex hermitian $2\times 2$ matrices and $\mathbb{R}^4$, 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 $\mathbb{E}^{1,3}$, 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.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2003

The Conal representation of Quantum States and Non Trace-Preserving Quantum Operations

We represent generalized density matrices of a $d$-complex dimensional quantum system as a subcone of a real pointed cone of revolution in $\mathbb{R}^{d^2}$, or indeed a Minkowskian cone in $\mathbb{E}^{1,d^2-1}$. Generalized pure states correspond to certain future-directed light-like vectors of $\mathbb{E}^{1,d^2-1}$. This extension of the Generalized Bloch Sphere enables us to cater for non-trace-preserving quantum operations, and in particluar 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 formulae 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 tradeoff in the case of two equiprobable pure states. Thus we recover Fuchs and Peres' formula in an elegant manner.

quant-ph↗