Quantum simulation of classical thermal states

We establish a connection between ground states of local quantum Hamiltonians and thermal states of classical spin systems. For any discrete classical statistical mechanical model in any spatial dimension, we find an associated quantum state such that the reduced density operator behaves as the thermal state of the classical system. We show that all these quantum states are unique ground states of a universal 5-body local quantum Hamiltonian acting on a (polynomially enlarged) qubit system on a 2D lattice. The only free parameters of the quantum Hamiltonian are coupling strengths of two-body interactions, which allow one to choose the type and dimension of the classical model as well as the interaction strength and temperature. This opens the possibility to study and simulate classical spin models in arbitrary dimension using a 2D quantum system.     

Thermodynamics under Dynamic Forcing

Beginning with a system that is governed by an arbitrary time-dependent Hamiltonian, we exhibit an existence proof for a unitary generator that has an arbitrary initial value and yet contact transforms the representation to one governed by any given kinematically equivalent Hamiltonian. By choosing the initial value of the unitary operator to be unity, we are able to compare the behaviour of the same system under two different Hamiltonians and the same initial state vector. We thus are able to establish that the eventual physical states evolving from two distinct initial quantum state vectors will become practically indistinguishable under one of the two Hamiltonians if and only if they do so under the other. For the restricted class of systems for which one of the two Hamiltonians is a time-independent energy operator, and also generates equilibrium thermodynamics, then the condition for merging under the time-dependent Hamiltonian is the same as under the time-independent one. The two states must have the same initial energy. As a special case of the above, we choose the time-independent Hamiltonian to be the relativistic energy measuring operator for the time-dependent Hamiltonian, as associated with the chosen initial time. If the system under the time-dependent Hamiltonian is such that its relativistic energy measuring operator for any fixed time generates equilibrium thermodynamics, then we are led rigorously to the conclusion that the instantaneous relativistic energy for the system under the time-dependent Hamiltonian is simply a well-defined function of time and depends only on the initial energy and not on any other initial conditions. For a composite system that is of the above type, and in addition consists of one very small system in contact with a very large one, which is called a generalized reservoir, we consider a specific initial physical state for the large system, and various states for the small one. The eventual dynamic state of the composite system is essentially independent of the initial state of the small system which has almost no influence on the total composite energy. Hence the eventual dynamic state of the small system is shown rigorously to be independent of its initial state. For a forced system with a time-dependent Hamiltonian, we discuss the assignment of equilibrium thermodynamic potentials to a representation with a time-independent Hamiltonian. We discuss the concept of a process under a time-dependent Hamiltonian. Such a process is a natural generalization of the static and quasi-static processes. Also, we verify all of the theory with both general and specific examples of electromagnetic interactions.     

Quantum phase transitions and bipartite entanglement

We develop a general theory of the relation between quantum phase transitions (QPTs) characterized by nonanalyticities in the energy and bipartite entanglement. We derive a functional relation between the matrix elements of two-particle reduced density matrices and the eigenvalues of general two-body Hamiltonians of d-level systems. The ground state energy eigenvalue and its derivatives, whose nonanalyticity characterizes a QPT, are directly tied to bipartite entanglement measures. We show that first-order QPTs are signaled by density matrix elements themselves and second-order QPTs by the first derivative of density matrix elements. Our general conclusions are illustrated via several quantum spin models.     

On Isospectral Deformations of an Inhomogeneous String

For an anyon model in two spatial dimensions described by a modular tensor category, the topological S-matrix encodes the mutual braiding statistics, the quantum dimensions, and the fusion rules of anyons. It is nontrivial whether one can compute the S-matrix from a single ground state wave function. Here, we define a class of Hamiltonians consisting of local commuting projectors and an associated matrix that is invariant under local unitary transformations. We argue that the invariant is equivalent to the topological S-matrix. The definition does not require degeneracy of the ground state. We prove that the invariant depends on the state only, in the sense that it can be computed by any Hamiltonian in the class of which the state is a ground state. As a corollary, we prove that any local quantum circuit that connects two ground states of quantum double models (discrete gauge theories) with non-isomorphic abelian groups must have depth that is at least linear in the system’s diameter. As a tool for the proof, a manifestly Hamiltonian-independent notion of locally invisible operators is introduced. This gives a sufficient condition for a many-body state not to be generated from a product state by any small depth quantum circuit; this is a many-body entanglement witness.     

Time-optimal quantum evolution

We present a general framework for finding the time-optimal evolution and the optimal Hamiltonian for a quantum system with a given set of initial and final states. Our formulation is based on the variational principle and is analogous to that for the brachistochrone in classical mechanics. We reduce the problem to a formal equation for the Hamiltonian which depends on certain constraint functions specifying the range of available Hamiltonians. For some simple examples of the constraints, we explicitly find the optimal solutions.     

Criticality, the area law, and the computational power of projected entangled pair states

The projected entangled pair state (PEPS) representation of quantum states on two-dimensional lattices induces an entanglement based hierarchy in state space. We show that the lowest levels of this hierarchy exhibit a very rich structure including states with critical and topological properties. We prove, in particular, that coherent versions of thermal states of any local 2D classical spin model correspond to such PEPS, which are in turn ground states of local 2D quantum Hamiltonians. This correspondence maps thermal onto quantum fluctuations, and it allows us to analytically construct critical quantum models exhibiting a strict area law scaling of the entanglement entropy in the face of power law decaying correlations. Moreover, it enables us to show that there exist PEPS which can serve as computational resources for the solution of NP-hard problems.     

Three-spin interactions in optical lattices and criticality in cluster Hamiltonians

We demonstrate that in a triangular configuration of an optical lattice of two atomic species a variety of novel spin-1/2 Hamiltonians can be generated. They include effective three-spin interactions resulting from the possibility of atoms tunneling along two different paths. This motivates the study of ground state properties of various three-spin Hamiltonians in terms of their two-point and n-point correlations as well as the localizable entanglement. We present a Hamiltonian with a finite energy gap above its unique ground state for which the localizable entanglement length diverges for a wide interval of applied external fields, while at the same time the classical correlation length remains finite.     

Quantum Systems Connected by a Time-Dependent Canonical Transformation

We study both classical and quantum relation between two Hamiltoniansystems which are mutually connected by time-dependent canonical transformation. One is ordinary conservative system and the other istime-dependent Hamiltonian system. The quantum unitary operatorrelevant to classical canonical transformation between the two systems are obtained through rigorous evaluation. With the aid of the unitary operator, we have derived quantum states of the time-dependent Hamiltonian system through transforming the quantum states of the conservative system. The invariant operators of the two systems are presented and the relation between them are addressed. We showed that there exist numerous Hamiltonians, which gives the same classical equation of motion. Though it is impossible to distinguish the systems described by these Hamiltonians within the realm of classical mechanics, they can be distinguishable quantum mechanically.     

Entanglement in non-Hermitian quantum theory

Entanglement is one of the key features of quantum world that has no classical counterpart. This arises due to the linear superposition principle and the tensor product structure of the Hilbert space when we deal with multiparticle systems. In this paper, we will introduce the notion of entanglement for quantum systems that are governed by non-Hermitian yet PT-symmetric Hamiltonians. We will show that maximally entangled states in usual quantum theory behave like non-maximally entangled states in PT-symmetric quantum theory. Furthermore, we will show how to create entanglement between two PT qubits using non-Hermitian Hamiltonians and discuss the entangling capability of such interaction Hamiltonians that are non-Hermitian in nature.     

Combined Effect of Classical Chaos and Quantum Resonance on Entanglement Dynamics

We use linear entropy of an exact quantum state to study the entanglement between internal electronic states and external motional states for a two-level atom held in an amplitude-modulated and tilted optical lattice.Starting from an unentangled initial state associated with the regular 'island' of classical phase space,it is demonstrated that the quantum resonance leads to entanglement generation,the chaotic parameter region results in the increase of the generation speed,and the symmetries of the initial probability distribution determine the final degree of entanglement.The entangled initial states are associated with the classical 'chaotic sea',which do not affect the final entanglement degree for the same initial symmetry.The results may be useful in engineering quantum dynamics for quantum information processing.     

Squashed Entanglement, $$\mathbf {}$$-Extendibility,Quantum Marov Chains,and Recovery Maps

Squashed entanglement (Christandl and Winter in J. Math. Phys. 45(3):829–840, 2004) is a monogamous entanglement measure, which implies that highly extendible states have small value of the squashed entanglement. Here, invoking a recent inequality for the quantum conditional mutual information (Fawzi and Renner in Commun. Math. Phys. 340(2):575–611, 2015) greatly extended and simplified in various work since, we show the converse, that a small value of squashed entanglement implies that the state is close to a highly extendible state. As a corollary, we establish an alternative proof of the faithfulness of squashed entanglement (Brandão et al. Commun. Math. Phys. 306:805–830, 2011). We briefly discuss the previous and subsequent history of the Fawzi–Renner bound and related conjectures, and close by advertising a potentially far-reaching generalization to universal and functorial recovery maps for the monotonicity of the relative entropy.     

Alternative quantization of the Hamiltonian in loop quantum cosmology

Since there are quantization ambiguities in constructing the Hamiltonian constraint operator in isotropic loop quantum cosmology, it is crucial to check whether the key features of loop quantum cosmology are robust against the ambiguities. In this Letter, we quantize the Lorentz term of the gravitational Hamiltonian constraint in the spatially flat FRW model by two approaches different from that of the Euclidean term. One of the approaches is very similar to the treatment of the Lorentz part of Hamiltonian in loop quantum gravity and hence inherits more features from the full theory. Two symmetric Hamiltonian constraint operators are constructed respectively in the improved scheme. Both of them are shown to have the correct classical limit by the semiclassical analysis. In the loop quantum cosmological model with a massless scalar field, the effective Hamiltonians and Friedmann equations are derived. It turns out that the classical big bang is again replaced by a quantum bounce in both cases. Moreover, there are still great possibilities for the expanding universe to recollapse due to the quantum gravity effect.     

Nonperturbative gadget for topological quantum codes

Many-body entangled systems, in particular topologically ordered spin systems proposed as resources for quantum information processing tasks, often involve highly nonlocal interaction terms. While one may approximate such systems through two-body interactions perturbatively, these approaches have a number of drawbacks in practice. In this Letter, we propose a scheme to simulate many-body spin Hamiltonians with two-body Hamiltonians nonperturbatively. Unlike previous approaches, our Hamiltonians are not only exactly solvable with exact ground state degeneracy, but also support completely localized quasiparticle excitations, which are ideal for quantum information processing tasks. Our construction is limited to simulating the toric code and quantum double models, but generalizations to other nonlocal spin Hamiltonians may be possible.     

Entropy, entanglement, and area: analytical results for harmonic lattice systems

We revisit the question of the relation between entanglement, entropy, and area for harmonic lattice Hamiltonians corresponding to discrete versions of real free Klein-Gordon fields. For the ground state of the d-dimensional cubic harmonic lattice we establish a strict relationship between the surface area of a distinguished hypercube and the degree of entanglement between the hypercube and the rest of the lattice analytically, without resorting to numerical means. We outline extensions of these results to longer ranged interactions, finite temperatures, and for classical correlations in classical harmonic lattice systems. These findings further suggest that the tools of quantum information science may help in establishing results in quantum field theory that were previously less accessible.     

Computational difficulty of computing the density of states

We study the computational difficulty of computing the ground state degeneracy and the density of states for local Hamiltonians. We show that the difficulty of both problems is exactly captured by a class which we call #BQP, which is the counting version of the quantum complexity class quantum Merlin Arthur. We show that #BQP is not harder than its classical counting counterpart #P, which in turn implies that computing the ground state degeneracy or the density of states for classical Hamiltonians is just as hard as it is for quantum Hamiltonians.     

Diverging entanglement length in gapped quantum spin systems

We prove the existence of gapped quantum Hamiltonians whose ground states exhibit an infinite entanglement length, as opposed to their finite correlation length. Using the concept of entanglement swapping, the localizable entanglement is calculated exactly for valence bond and finitely correlated states, and the existence of the so-called string-order parameter is discussed. We also report on evidence that the ground state of an antiferromagnetic chain can be used as a perfect quantum channel if local measurements on the individual spins can be implemented.     

Two-state system coupled to a boson mode: Quantum dynamics and classical approximations

The relation between classical and quantum mechanical integrability is investigated for a boson mode coupled to a two-level system. Different semi-classical approximations of this system are considered which are obtained by (i) factorization of expectation values of the two-state variable and the boson, (ii) making a WKB-type approximation, (iii) replacing the boson by a classical field of constant amplitude and fixed frequency and (iv) putting the boson into a self-consistent coherent state. The results vary considerably and include cases of non-integrable and integrable classical dynamics. Quantum mechanically the system is found to satisfy a criterion of quantum mechanical integrability, which we formulate, but the separated Hamiltonian of the boson alone does not have a well-defined classical limit. Numerical results for the energy spectrum and expectation values are obtained, which show a high degree of regularity but also display overlapping avoided crossings usually associated with non-integrable Hamiltonians. The exact dynamics of the occupation probabilities of the two levels is also analysed numerically. The dependence of quantum mechanical recurrence effects (in quantum optics known as revivals) on coupling strength, frequency detuning and initial conditions is studied. The revivals are found to disappear in the case of strong coupling. The Fourier spectra of the dynamical expectation values are also calculated     

Time Development of Exponentially Small Non-Adiabatic Transitions

Optimal truncations of asymptotic expansions are known to yield approximations to adiabatic quantum evolutions that are accurate up to exponentially small errors. In this paper, we rigorously determine the leading order non–adiabatic corrections to these approximations for a particular family of two–level analytic Hamiltonian functions. Our results capture the time development of the exponentially small transition that takes place between optimal states by means of a particular switching function. Our results confirm the physics predictions of Sir Michael Berry in the sense that the switching function for this family of Hamiltonians has the form that he argues is universal.Partially supported by National Science Foundation Grants DMS–0071692 and DMS–0303586.     

Faster than Hermitian quantum mechanics

Given an initial quantum state |psi(I)> and a final quantum state |psi(F)>, there exist Hamiltonians H under which |psi(I)> evolves into |psi(F)>. Consider the following quantum brachistochrone problem: subject to the constraint that the difference between the largest and smallest eigenvalues of H is held fixed, which H achieves this transformation in the least time tau? For Hermitian Hamiltonians tau has a nonzero lower bound. However, among non-Hermitian PT-symmetric Hamiltonians satisfying the same energy constraint, tau can be made arbitrarily small without violating the time-energy uncertainty principle. This is because for such Hamiltonians the path from |psi(I)> to |psi(F)> can be made short. The mechanism described here is similar to that in general relativity in which the distance between two space-time points can be made small if they are connected by a wormhole. This result may have applications in quantum computing.