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Robert Alicki

Publications and source records attributed to Robert Alicki.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
arXiv2010

Quantum memories and Landauer's principle

Two types of arguments concerning (im)possibility of constructing a scalable, exponentially stable quantum memory equipped with Hamiltonian controls are discussed. The first type concerns ergodic properties of open Kitaev models which are considered as promising candidates for such memories. It is shown that, although the 4D Kitaev model provides stable qubit observables, the Hamiltonian control is not possible. The thermodynamical approach leads to the new proposal of the revised version of Landauer's principle and suggests that the existence of quantum memory implies the existence of the perpetuum mobile of the second kind. Finally, a discussion of the stability property of information and its implications is presented.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2010

BCS model of Cooper Pair Box

The standard phenomenological Hamiltonian of a small superconducting Josephson junction in the charge regime (Cooper Pair Box) produces a model of the effective charge qubit with possible applications to quantum information processing. In this note a new model based on the BCS Hamiltonian with individual tunneling yields an effective multi-level picture with a highly degenerated level placed between the ground state and the excited state. Unlike in the standard approach, the excited Cooper pairs play here an important role. For such a system coupled to a zero temperature bath the additional levels act as a probability sink. In contrast to the standard large-spin model the coupling to phonons can be an effective source of dissipation. This model provides also alternative explanations of various effects observed in experiments and sheds new light on the issue of Josephson junctions as macroscopic quantum systems.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2009

A lattice gas model of a single Cooper pair box

There exists a large number of experimental and theoretical results supporting the picture of "macroscopic qubits" implemented by nanoscopic Josephson junctions. On the other hand the standard model of such systems given in terms of a single degree of freedom suggests their semiclassical behavior due to a localization mechanism caused by a strong coupling to an environment. Indeed, such a mechanism is observed in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) placed in a double-well potential - a system mathematically equivalent to a Josephson junction. In this note it is shown, on the example of a Cooper pair box, that replacing the BEC-type model for Cooper pairs by a lattice gas model one can reduce the environmental effects of "dequantization" and can explain the experimental data in particular the existing huge differences between the measured values of relaxation times.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2008

The macroscopic qubit delusion

There exists a large number of experimental and theoretical results supporting the picture of "macroscopic qubits" implemented, for instance, by Rydberg atoms, Josephson junctions or Bose-Einstein condensates - the systems which should rather emerge in localized semiclassical states. In this note it is shown how, under realistic conditions, the false qubit interpretation can be consistent with the restricted set of experimental data collected for semiclassical systems. The recent experiments displaying semiclassical character of Bose-Einstein condensates and possible quantumness tests for a single system are briefly invoked also.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2008

On von Neumann and Bell theorems applied to quantumness tests

The issues, raised in arXiv:0809.011, concerning the relevance of the von Neumann theorem for the single-system's quantumness test proposed in arXiv:0704.1962 and performed for the case of single photon polarization in arXiv:0804.1646, and the usefulness of Bell's inequality for testing the idea of macroscopic quantum systems are discussed in some details. Finally, the proper quantum mechanical description of the experiment with polarized photon beams is presented.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2008

Decay of fidelity in terms of correlation functions

We consider, within the algebraic formalism, the time dependence of fidelity for qubits encoded into an open physical system. We relate the decay of fidelity to the evolution of correlation functions and, in the particular case of a Markovian dynamics, to the spectral gap of the generator of the semigroup. The results are applicable to the analysis of models of quantum memories.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2008

Quantum decay cannot be completely reversed. The 5% rule

Using an exactly solvable model of the Wigner-Weisskopf atom it is shown that an unstable quantum state cannot be recovered completely by the procedure involving detection of the decay products followed by creation of the time reversed decay products state, as proposed in \cite{Son}. The universal lower bound on the recovery error is approximately equal to $5% $ of the \emph{error per cycle} - the dimensionless parameter characterizing decay process in the Markovian approximation. This result has consequences for the efficiency of quantum error correction procedures which are based on syndrome measurements and corrective operations.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2008

Quantumness Witnesses

A recently proposed test of quantumness [R. Alicki and N. Van Ryn, J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 41 062001 (2008)] is put into a broader mathematical and physical perspective. The notion of quantumness witness is introduced, in analogy to entanglement witness, and illustrated by examples of a single qubit and many-body systems with additive observables. We compare also our proposal with the quantumness test based on quantum correlations (entanglement) and Bell inequalities. A class of quantumness witnesses associated to the phase space representation is also discussed.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2008

Pure decoherence in quantum systems

A popular model of decoherence based on the linear coupling to harmonic oscillator heat baths is analized and shown to be inappropriate in the regime where decoherence dominates over energy dissipation, called pure decoherence regime. The similar mechanism essentially related to the energy conservation implies that, on the contrary to the recent conjectures, chaotic environments can be less efficient decoherers than regular ones. Finally, the elastic scattering mechanism is advocated as the simplest source of pure decoherence.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2007

Charge Oscillations in Superconducting Nanodevices Coupled to External Environments

Charge oscillations in certain nanodevices, more specifically the so-called Superconducting Cooper Pair Boxes (SCB), are usually interpreted as an effect of macroscopic quantum coherence; an alternative explanation is however possible in terms of the Gross-Pitaewski equation for the classical order parameter. These two explanations are based on different quantum states assigned to the SCB, occupation number states in the first case, coherent-like states in the second one. We show that, when the SCB is weakly coupled to an external source of noise and dissipation, occupation number states are much more unstable than coherent ones.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2007

A simple test of quantumness for a single system

We propose a simple test of quantumness which can decide whether for the given set of accessible experimental data the classical model is insufficient. Take two observables $ A,B$ such that for any state $ψ$ their mean values satisfy $0\leq <ψ|A|ψ>\leq <ψ|B|ψ>\leq 1$. If there exists a state $ϕ$ such that the second moments fulfill the inequality $<ϕ|A^2|ϕ> ><ϕ|B^2|ϕ>$ then the system cannot be described by the classical probabilistic scheme. An example of an optimal triple $(A,B,ϕ)$ in the case of a qubit is given.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2007

Quantumness of Josephson junctions reexamined

There exists an increasing evidence supporting the picture of the Josephson junction (JJ) as a "macroscopic quantum system". On the other hand the interpretation of experimental data strongly depends on the assumed theoretical model. We analyse the possible states of a Cooper pair box ("charge qubit") for the two types of models : two-mode Bose-Hubbard model with its large $N$ aproximations and the many-body description within the mean-field approximation (Gross-Pitaevski equation). While the first class of models supports the picture of JJ being a quantum subsystem of a single degree of freedom, the second approach yields an essentially classical structure of accessible quantum states which, in particular, implies the absence of entanglement for two coupled JJ's. The arguments in favor of the mean-field theory are presented and different experimental tests including a new proposal are briefly discussed.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2006

False qubits?: Polarization of light and Josephson junction

We compare two physical systems: polarization degrees of freedom of a macroscopic light beam and the Josephson junction (JJ) in the "charge qubit regime". The first system obviously cannot carry genuine quantum information and we show that the maximal entanglement which could be encoded into polarization of two light beams scales like 1/(photon number). Two theories of JJ, one leading to the picture of "JJ-qubit" and the other based on the mean-field approach are discussed. The later, which seems to be more appropriate, implies that the JJ system is, essentially, mathematically equivalent to the polarization of a light beam with the number of photons replaced by the number of Cooper pairs. The existing experiments consistent with the "JJ-qubit" picture and the theoretical arguments supporting, on the contrary, the classical model are briefly discussed. The Franck-Hertz-type experiment is suggested as an ultimate test of the JJ nature.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2006

Linear dynamical entropy and free-independence for quantized maps on the torus

We study the relations between the averaged linear entropy production in periodically measured quantum systems and ergodic properties of their classical counterparts. Quantized linear automorphisms of the torus, both classically chaotic and regular ones, are used as examples. Numerical calculations show different entropy production regimes depending on the relation between the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy and the measurement entropy. The hypothesis of free independence relations between the dynamics and measurement proposed to explain the initial constant and maximal entropy production is tested numerically for those models.

quant-ph↗
arXiv2006

False qubits II. Entanglement of Josephson junctions

The recent experimental evidence for entangled states of two Josephson junction qubits is briefly discussed. It is argued that the interpretation of the experimental data strongly depends on the assumed theoretical model. Namely, the qubit states are supposed to be the lowest lying eigenstates of a certain effective Hamiltonian and hence automatically orthogonal, while the simple analysis within a more fundamental many-particle model shows that those states should strongly overlap. This makes the standard interpretation of the measurement procedure questionable.

quant-ph↗