arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Erik Sjöqvist.
It is argued that the Aharonov-Casher set up could be used as the basic building block for quantum computation. We demonstrate explicitly in this scenario one- and two-qubit phase shift gates that are fault tolerant to deformations of the path when encircling two sites of the computational system around each other.
Uhlmann's mixed state geometric phase [Rep. Math. Phys. {\bf 24}, 229 (1986)] is analyzed in the case of a qubit affected by isotropic decoherence treated in the Markovian approximation. It is demonstrated that this phase decreases rapidly with increasing decoherence rate and that it is most fragile to weak decoherence for pure or nearly pure initial states. In the unitary case, we compare Uhlmann's geometric phase for mixed states with that occurring in standard Mach-Zehnder interferometry [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 85}, 2845 (2000)] and show that the latter is more robust to reduction in the length of the Bloch vector. We also describe how Uhlmann's geometric phase in the present case could in principle be realized experimentally.
We extend the off-diagonal geometric phase [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 85}, 3067 (2000)] to mixed quantal states. The nodal structure of this phase in the qubit (two-level) case is compared with that of the diagonal mixed state geometric phase [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 85}, 2845 (2000)]. Extension to higher dimensional Hilbert spaces is delineated. A physical scenario for the off-diagonal mixed state geometric phase in polarization-entangled two-photon interferometry is proposed.
Off-diagonal mixed state phases based upon a concept of orthogonality adapted to unitary evolution and a proper normalisation condition are introduced. Some particular instances are analysed and parallel transport leading to the off-diagonal mixed state geometric phase is delineated. A complete experimental realisation of the off-diagonal mixed state geometric phases in the qubit case using polarisation-entangled two-photon interferometry is proposed.
It is shown that the molecular Aharonov-Bohm effect is neither nonlocal nor topological in the sense of the standard magnetic Aharonov-Bohm effect. It is further argued that there is a close relationship between the molecular Aharonov-Bohm effect and the Aharonov-Casher effect for an electrically neutral spin$-{1/2}$ particle encircling a line of charge.
The ideal scalar Aharonov-Bohm (SAB) and Aharonov-Casher (AC) effect involve a magnetic dipole pointing in a certain fixed direction: along a purely time dependent magnetic field in the SAB case and perpendicular to a planar static electric field in the AC case. We extend these effects to arbitrary direction of the magnetic dipole. The precise conditions for having nondispersive precession and interference effects in these generalized set ups are delineated both classically and quantally. Under these conditions the dipole is affected by a nonvanishing torque that causes pure precession around the directions defined by the ideal set ups. It is shown that the precession angles are in the quantal case linearly related to the ideal phase differences, and that the nonideal phase differences are nonlinearly related to the ideal phase differences. It is argued that the latter nonlinearity is due the appearance of a geometric phase associated with the nontrivial spin path. It is further demonstrated that the spatial force vanishes in all cases except in the classical treatment of the nonideal AC set up, where the occurring force has to be compensated by the experimental arrangement. Finally, for a closed space-time loop the local precession effects can be inferred from the interference pattern characterized by the nonideal phase differences and the visibilities. It is argued that this makes it natural to regard SAB and AC as essentially local and nontopological effects.
We generalize the notion of relative phase to completely positive maps with known unitary representation, based on interferometry. Parallel transport conditions that define the geometric phase for such maps are introduced. The interference effect is embodied in a set of interference patterns defined by flipping the environment state in one of the two paths. We show for the qubit that this structure gives rise to interesting additional information about the geometry of the evolution defined by the CP map.
Some recent ideas concerning Pancharatnam's prescription of relative phase between quantal states are delineated. Generalisations to mixed states and entangled two-photon states are discussed. An experimental procedure to test the geometric phase as a Pancharatnam relative phase is described. We further put forward a spatial split-beam dual to Pancharatnam's relative phase.
We provide a physical prescription based on interferometry for introducing the total phase of a mixed state undergoing unitary evolution, which has been an elusive concept in the past. We define the parallel transport condition that provides a connection-form for obtaining the geometric phase for mixed states. The expression for the geometric phase for mixed state reduces to well known formulas in the pure state case when a system undergoes noncyclic and unitary quantum evolution.