arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M. Combescure.
In this paper, we consider the problem of Mutually Unbiased Bases in prime dimension $d$. It is known to provide exactly $d+1$ mutually unbiased bases. We revisit this problem using a class of circulant $d \times d$ matrices. The constructive proof of a set of $d+1$ mutually unbiased bases follows, together with a set of properties of Gauss sums, and of bi-unimodular sequences.
In our previous paper \cite{co1} we have shown that the theory of circulant matrices allows to recover the result that there exists $p+1$ Mutually Unbiased Bases in dimension $p$, $p$ being an arbitrary prime number. Two orthonormal bases $\mathcal B, \mathcal B'$ of $\mathbb C^d$ are said mutually unbiased if $\forall b\in \mathcal B, \forall b' \in \mathcal B'$ one has that $$| b\cdot b'| = \frac{1}{\sqrt d}$$ ($b\cdot b'$ hermitian scalar product in $\mathbb C^d$). In this paper we show that the theory of block-circulant matrices with circulant blocks allows to show very simply the known result that if $d=p^n$ ($p$ a prime number, $n$ any integer) there exists $d+1$ mutually Unbiased Bases in $\mathbb C^d$. Our result relies heavily on an idea of Klimov, Munoz, Romero \cite{klimuro}. As a subproduct we recover properties of quadratic Weil sums for $p\ge 3$, which generalizes the fact that in the prime case the quadratic Gauss sums properties follow from our results.
The notion of Loschmidt echo (also called "quantum fidelity") has been introduced in order to study the (in)-stability of the quantum dynamics under perturbations of the Hamiltonian. It has been extensively studied in the past few years in the physics literature, in connection with the problems of "quantum chaos", quantum computation and decoherence. In this paper, we study this quantity semiclassically (as $\hbar \to 0$), taking as reference quantum states the usual coherent states. The latter are known to be well adapted to a semiclassical analysis, in particular with respect to semiclassical estimates of their time evolution. For times not larger than the so-called "Ehrenfest time" $C | \log \hbar |$, we are able to estimate semiclassically the Loschmidt Echo as a function of $t$ (time), $\hbar$ (Planck constant), and $δ$ (the size of the perturbation). The way two classical trajectories merging from the same point in classical phase-space, fly apart or come close together along the evolutions governed by the perturbed and unperturbed Hamiltonians play a major role in this estimate. We also give estimates of the "return probability" (again on reference states being the coherent states) by the same method, as a function of $t$ and $\hbar$.
The study of Mutually Unbiased Bases continues to be developed vigorously, and presents several challenges in the Quantum Information Theory. Two orthonormal bases in $\mathbb C^d, B {and} B'$ are said mutually unbiased if $\forall b\in B, b'\in B'$ the scalar product $b\cdot b'$ has modulus $d^{-1/2}$. In particular this property has been introduced in order to allow an optimization of the measurement-driven quantum evolution process of any state $ψ\in \mathbb C^d$ when measured in the mutually unbiased bases $B\_{j} {of} \mathbb C^d$. At present it is an open problem to find the maximal umber of mutually Unbiased Bases when $d$ is not a power of a prime number. \noindent In this article, we revisit the problem of finding Mutually Unbiased Bases (MUB's) in any dimension $d$. The method is very elementary, using the simple unitary matrices introduced by Schwinger in 1960, together with their diagonalizations. The Vandermonde matrix based on the $d$-th roots of unity plays a major role. This allows us to show the existence of a set of 3 MUB's in any dimension, to give conditions for existence of more than 3 MUB's for $d$ even or odd number, and to recover the known result of existence of $d+1$ MUB's for $d$ a prime number. Furthermore the construction of these MUB's is very explicit. As a by-product, we recover results about Gauss Sums, known in number theory, but which have apparently not been previously derived from MUB properties.
Let us consider the quantum/versus classical dynamics for Hamiltonians of the form \beq \label{0.1} H\_{g}^ε := \frac{P^2}{2}+ ε\frac{Q^2}{2}+ \frac{g^2}{Q^2} \edq where $ε= \pm 1$, $g$ is a real constant. We shall in particular study the Quantum Fidelity between $H\_{g}^ε$ and $H\_{0}^ε$ defined as \beq \label{0.2} F\_{Q}^ε(t,g):= < \exp(-it H\_{0}^ε)ψ, exp(-itH\_{g}^ ε)ψ> \edq for some reference state $ψ$ in the domain of the relevant operators. We shall also propose a definition of the Classical Fidelity, already present in the literature (\cite{becave1}, \cite{becave2}, \cite{ec}, \cite{prozni}, \cite{vepro}) and compare it with the behaviour of the Quantum Fidelity, as time evolves, and as the coupling constant $g$ is varied.
In this paper we perform an exact study of ``Quantum Fidelity'' (also called Loschmidt Echo) for the time-periodic quantum Harmonic Oscillator of Hamiltonian : $$ \hat H\_{g}(t):=\frac{P^2}{2}+ f(t)\frac{Q^2}{2}+\frac{g^2}{Q^2} $$ when compared with the quantum evolution induced by $\hat H\_{0}(t)$ ($g=0$), in the case where $f$ is a $T$-periodic function and $g$ a real constant. The reference (initial) state is taken to be an arbitrary ``generalized coherent state'' in the sense of Perelomov. We show that, starting with a quadratic decrease in time in the neighborhood of $t=0$, this quantum fidelity may recur to its initial value 1 at an infinite sequence of times {$t\_{k}$}. We discuss the result when the classical motion induced by Hamiltonian $\hat H\_{0}(t)$ is assumed to be stable versus unstable. A beautiful relationship between the quantum and the classical fidelity is also demonstrated.
After recalling different formulations of the definition of supersymmetric quantum mechanics given in the literature, we discuss the relationships between them in order to provide an answer to the question raised in the title.
Consider a free electron gas in a confining potential and a magnetic field in arbitrary dimensions. If this gas is in thermal equilibrium with a reservoir at temperature $T >0$, one can study its orbital magnetic response (omitting the spin). One defines a conveniently ``smeared out'' magnetization $M$, and the corresponding magnetic susceptibility $χ$, which will be analyzed from a semiclassical point of view, namely when $\hbar$ (the Planck constant) is small compared to classical actions characterizing the system. Then various regimes of temperature $T$ are studied where $M$ and $χ$ can be obtained in the form of suitable asymptotic $\hbar$-expansions. In particular when $T$ is of the order of $\hbar$, oscillations ``à la de Haas-van Alphen'' appear, that can be linked to the classical periodic orbits of the electronic motion.
The Gutzwiller semiclassical trace formula links the eigenvalues of the Scrodinger operator ^H with the closed orbits of the corresponding classical mechanical system, associated with the Hamiltonian H, when the Planck constant is small ("semiclassical regime"). Gutzwiller gave a heuristic proof, using the Feynman integral representation for the propagator of ^H. Later on mathematicians gave rigorous proofs of this trace formula, under different settings, using the theory of Fourier Integral Operators and Lagrangian manifolds. Here we want to show how the use of coherent states (or gaussian beams) allows us to give a simple and direct proof.